Adding extra members to standard or premium plans would also cost more — from $7.99 to $9.99 a person.
The world’s largest streaming service upped its prices to New Zealand customers in February last year and before that in September 2021.
It’s not the only provider to hike prices amid an uncertain market, with Disney+ doing the same in February.
RNZ film reviewer Dan Slevin told Midday Report viewers should not take the increases personally.
“These are global price rises. They’re led by North America. Here in New Zealand, we’re not strategic in terms of Netflix.
“We’re a cash-cow, frankly, and if prices are going up in North America, they’ll be going up in the rest of the world as well.”
Slevin said the reason behind the price increase in the United States related to advertising success.
“In North America, Netflix and also Disney and Prime... their entry-level packages are supported by advertising, so when you pay your cheapest rate, your shows are interrupted with ads.
“And what they have discovered is that actually, that programme has been incredibly successful. There have been a lot of buyers for those ads.
“It means that the revenue per customer on that entry-level package in North America has actually been much higher than they thought it would be, and the result is that they have to put the prices up for everybody else so that the revenue per customer matches what their entry-level package is worth.”
Slevin said there could be an impact on the viewing habits of Kiwis in that many might consider dropping from a premium plan to standard.
He said viewers could pick and choose based on what was available on any given month on streaming services, but he believed with Netflix, the opposite was more likely to be the case.
“It’s relatively easy to churn a streaming service. You suspend your membership for a couple of months, and then when something good turns up, you, just re-subscribe.
“The problem with Netflix is because they’re so huge — I mean, US$17 billion ($30b) worth of spend on new content every year — there’s usually something there that people want.”
Slevin said the most costly content didn’t necessarily equate to the most viewers.
“One of the most expensive movies ever made — the Russo brothers’ The Electric State — US$350 million, nobody’s wanting to watch it. But everybody wants to watch Adolescence and Netflix didn’t expect that.
“There’s usually something on Netflix for people to sustain and wear that cost.”
- RNZ
