The Netflix platform is doing very well and announces a positive outcome for the year 2023. But this success will generate bad news for subscribers who will still have to break the bank.
The end of 2023 was very beneficial for Netflix, which continues to evolve its strategies to save money and reap additional profits, in particular by eliminating password sharing and increasing subscription prices.
According to BoxOfficeProthese strategies have paid off for the platform since in the fourth quarter of the past year, the American platform gained 13.1 million additional subscribers and can now count 260.8 million households around the world among their customers .
According to its latest reports, the streaming service also saw a 70% growth in subscriptions to its ad-supported offering in the last quarter of 2023.
The development of advertising activity, the increase in subscriptions and the end of account sharing allowed Netflix to invest massively in a major new project.
Indeed, Variety told us that the American giant had just acquired for 5 billion dollars (4.6 billion euros) the broadcasting rights to WWE Raw, the major sports entertainment show of World Wrestling Entertainment, for 10 years .
Subscribers will therefore be able to watch this huge, extremely popular wrestling show live every week on Netflix from January 2025 in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Latin America. Other countries should be affected and the rest of the broadcast should be communicated soon.
What consequences for Netflix subscribers in 2024?
Netflix is doing well and is pulling out its checkbook for huge partnerships, but how will the platform’s new successes impact subscribers? Straight into their wallets!
In fact, Netflix subscribers will have to pay more money to access the platform’s offers and catalog. And this translates into an increase in subscriptions. Indeed, TVLine reveals that Netflix will simply remove its cheapest ad-free offering.
Netflix
This decision had already been spotted a few weeks ago, without impacting users already subscribed to the “Essential” offer without advertising, but Netflix explained in a letter sent to shareholders that the aim was to gradually eliminate this offer.
So the cheapest ad-free offer will soon disappear completely. If you do not want to have advertising on your Netflix account, you no longer have or will only have 2 options: the “Standard” package at 13.49 euros per month and the “Premium” package at 19.99 euros per month.
If you don’t mind advertising, you still have the option of subscribing to the latest attractive subscription for small budgets: the “Standard with advertising” package at 5.99 euros per month.
But Ted Sarandos, CEO of Netflix, warned in the letter sent to shareholders that a further increase in subscription prices should be expected:
“As we continue to invest and improve Netflix, we will occasionally ask our subscribers to pay a little extra to reflect the cost of these developments, which will allow us to fund additional investments to develop and grow our service.”
Because Netflix’s major challenge is to continue to invest in its catalog and its original creations, which continue to be a hit around the world. But at what cost for subscribers?