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| Netflix price rise makes streaming service more expensive than Amazon | Netflix price rise makes streaming service more expensive than Amazon |
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| Millions of UK Netflix subscribers who want to catch up with House of Cards or watch the new series of Orange is the New Black face a £1.50 price hike, making it more expensive than its on-demand rival, Amazon Prime. | Millions of UK Netflix subscribers who want to catch up with House of Cards or watch the new series of Orange is the New Black face a £1.50 price hike, making it more expensive than its on-demand rival, Amazon Prime. |
| Early Netflix adopters who currently pay £5.99 a month will now have to pay £7.49 a month, it confirmed in an email to subscribers this week. | Early Netflix adopters who currently pay £5.99 a month will now have to pay £7.49 a month, it confirmed in an email to subscribers this week. |
| It comes as the on-demand service ramps up its investment on new content, such as its first UK production, the £100m royal epic The Crown, starring Claire Foy. | It comes as the on-demand service ramps up its investment on new content, such as its first UK production, the £100m royal epic The Crown, starring Claire Foy. |
| The price for new customers is also being increased, from £6.99 to £7.49. | The price for new customers is also being increased, from £6.99 to £7.49. |
| Related: Netflix’s early customers face price hike | Related: Netflix’s early customers face price hike |
| Customers can opt to remain on the £5.99 package but will lose high-definition picture quality and will only be able to watch on one screen rather than two. | Customers can opt to remain on the £5.99 package but will lose high-definition picture quality and will only be able to watch on one screen rather than two. |
| Amazon’s Instant Video, which will broadcast Jeremy Clarkson’s new Top Gear rival, The Grand Tour, costs £5.99, or £7.99 including its free delivery service, Amazon Prime. | Amazon’s Instant Video, which will broadcast Jeremy Clarkson’s new Top Gear rival, The Grand Tour, costs £5.99, or £7.99 including its free delivery service, Amazon Prime. |
| In a pricing structure almost as convoluted as Frank Underwood’s rise to the White House, the price rise will not affect all of Netflix’s more than 5 million customers in the UK. | In a pricing structure almost as convoluted as Frank Underwood’s rise to the White House, the price rise will not affect all of Netflix’s more than 5 million customers in the UK. |
| The £1.50 increase only applies to those who signed up before a previous price rise in May 2014. | The £1.50 increase only applies to those who signed up before a previous price rise in May 2014. |
| Subscribers who signed up after that point, who currently pay £6.99, have been given a guarantee that their current plan and price will not change for one year, suggesting another price hike in June 2017. | Subscribers who signed up after that point, who currently pay £6.99, have been given a guarantee that their current plan and price will not change for one year, suggesting another price hike in June 2017. |
| Netflix was one of Netflix’s first markets outside the US, launching in 2012. | Netflix was one of Netflix’s first markets outside the US, launching in 2012. |
| Related: Netflix's breaking good: from DVD mail-order firm to UK's top streaming service | |
| Once best-known for its archive of film and TV content, it has invested heavily in new programming in a bid to attract new subscribers. | Once best-known for its archive of film and TV content, it has invested heavily in new programming in a bid to attract new subscribers. |
| The price rise sees the beginning of the end of Netflix’s policy of offering cheaper subscriptions to long-standing customers, a process known as “grandfathering”. Similar changes were introduced in the US in May. | The price rise sees the beginning of the end of Netflix’s policy of offering cheaper subscriptions to long-standing customers, a process known as “grandfathering”. Similar changes were introduced in the US in May. |
| Netflix has seen rapid expansion with more than 5m households signed up to the service according to research by ratings agency Barb. | Netflix has seen rapid expansion with more than 5m households signed up to the service according to research by ratings agency Barb. |
| Rival services such as Amazon and Sky’s Now TV have not yet managed to match its success, but its burgeoning popularity has also come at a cost in terms of content. | |
| Last year, Netflix revealed that the cost of acquiring, licensing and producing TV and film content over the next five years surged past the $10bn mark for the first time. | |
| Its $1.4bn increase in total spend last year was mainly because of a major drive to expand the amount of exclusive and original programming it offers to entice new customers. | |
| Related: Breaking Bad to House of Cards – Netflix finally reveals its binge scale | Related: Breaking Bad to House of Cards – Netflix finally reveals its binge scale |
| Netflix does not publish viewing figures for any of its shows, but this week gave a glimpse into how its customers “binge-watch” on their favourite shows, suggesting the first season of a TV drama was typically completed in just a week. | Netflix does not publish viewing figures for any of its shows, but this week gave a glimpse into how its customers “binge-watch” on their favourite shows, suggesting the first season of a TV drama was typically completed in just a week. |
| The barely profitable Netflix made almost $7bn in revenues last year as subscriber numbers climbed by 30% to 75 million. | |
| The company has spied rapid expansion beyond its home market in the US as the key to building subscribers numbers and revenues to start to drive significant profits. | |
| In January, the company announced an aggressive roll-out to an additional 13 countries, effectively making the service available in all but a handful of places including China, North Korea and Syria. | |
| At the end of last year, Netflix had 27 million paying subscribers outside the US - it has about 5 million in the UK - and its international operation made a loss of £333,000. | |
| By comparison, Amazon’s video service is available in just five markets to date (UK, US, Germany, Austria, Japan), with a UK subscriber base estimated at 2 million. |