David Farnor | On 11, Apr 2016

Are you an existing Netflix customer? Then the price you pay each month could be going up in the coming weeks.

Before you panic, don’t worry: this is likely something you know already, despite the shocked news headlines sweeping through the media. The streaming giant has increased its prices twice since launching in the UK. When it first arrived on British shores, customers paid £5.99 a month for unlimited movies and TV. In May 2014, that rose to £6.99 for new customers, with prices again jumping to £7.49 a month in June 2015.

However, while new subscribers faced the more expensive price tags, existing members had their fees frozen at the same level they were already paying for two years (something that Netflix likes to call “grandfathering”). That means that anyone who had their price kept at £5.99 in May 2014 is about to see that go up to the current £7.49 rate.

That change will happen to your account from May 2016 onwards. The exact date will vary and you can find out that date by signing in to Netflix and viewing your account information. Again, this is something that you have already been warned about in an email from Netflix – consider this a reminder, rather than an alarm bell-ringing exposé.

What do you get for your money?

Netflix offers three packages in the UK. The basic plan costs £5.99 a month and allows one person to watch on one screen at any one time,only in standard definition. Unsurprisingly, this not the most popular option. The standard plan costs £7.49 a month (what legacy customers may have been paying £5.99 for) and allows two screens to be watching titles at the same time in up to 1080p HD. For families or larger households, who want to be able to stream up to four screens at once, a premium plan costs £8.99 a month, with 4K video also available.

Why are prices going up?

This increase for older customers follows a similar process in the US, as Netflix uses those extra few pounds each month from its customers to fund its worldwide expansion. Earlier this year, the site simultaneously launched in a whole heap of new territories, taking its global reach to more than 190 countries. Each of those countries require content licensing deals to secure things to stream, but Netflix is also funding a growing slate of original content, which it can then exclusively stream to all of its customers in every country without additional rights costs – something that is key to its aim of offering the same things to everyone everywher, regardless of their location. For more on what’s on the way to Netflix in April, click here – or for more on the original titles coming soon to Netflix in the next year, head this way.

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