Coming soon to Netflix: Higher prices

Coming soon to Netflix: Higher prices

The streaming video service’s stock, trading at less than $60 per share in 2012, is now nearing $400.

Netflix announced Friday morning that it was increasing its price for new subscribers by $1, from $7.99 to $8.99 per month. But the streaming video service was quick to let its current customers know that the price hike would not be affecting them anytime soon.

“As a thank you for being a member of Netflix already, we guarantee that your plan and price will not change for two years,” said the company in an email to its U.S. customers.

By grandfathering its current subscribers into the new pricing structure, Netflix appears to have internalized the lessons from its last attempted price hike in 2011. At that time, Netflix suffered a public relations catastrophe when it tried to charge customers separately for its DVD rental and video streaming services, effectively raising the price for customers who wanted both. The ensuing customer backlash caused Netflix’s stock to plummet by 75 percent in three months, according to the Huffington Post, and forced CEO Reed Hastings to reverse the decision and apologize.

Times have improved for Netflix though. In the two years since the P.R. debacle, the streaming video service’s stock, trading at less than $60 per share in 2012, is now nearing $400, a 566 percent change, Time Business reports.

In his analysis of the recent price increase announcement, Time’s Victor Luckerson estimates that Netflix will generate $148 million in extra revenue from new U.S. subscribers alone.

“Of course, the real payday comes in May 2016,” Luckerson writes. “[That’s] when older members get hit with the price hike, generating a quick $34.48 million from current U.S. subscribers (assuming they stick around) and $414 million more annually from this large cohort.”

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