Netflix has been a part of the American household. Recently, several reports claim that the streaming network is conducting several experiments on the prices of their shows. Allegedly, the prices of the streaming services offered by the company had been increased during weekends.
Secret experiment
Netflix did not announce the price hike on their weekend shows, which was experienced by their subscribers in Australia. However, the streaming giant confirmed this when it was confronted.
According to Netflix, they are conducting analyses but emphasized that it is currently just a test. The recent experiment will not affect any of their Australian customers. As the company constantly tries new things, this experiment in different price points is one of them. Through this, the streaming network will be able to determine how their customers value their services. They can also gauge the users' response if a Price increase will take place in the future. Moreover, this temporary price hike is also intended to understand how the subscribers use the streaming services. It has been reiterated by the company that this test will not be seen by all of their subscribers and this might not even be offered in general.
New prices of weekend services
Users have noticed a $1-2 price increase in Netflix shows on weekends, but it goes back to its original price during the weekday. The $8.99 basic service is now a $9.99 monthly price. Meanwhile, their standard service that previously costs $11.99 per month increased to $13.99. Their premium service rocketed to $17.99 a month from the previous $14.99. The increase is approximately 20 percent more than the usual price their customers are paying. It seems that this price experiment is only being applied to the subscribers in Australia. It might gather negative reactions from the Australian users, especially that their privilege being offered by the streaming giant is only limited to 40 percent of what is in the US library.
Although Netflix is still tongue-tied on this matter and it is still not certain if this increase is only exclusive to users in Australia, there are speculations that since the Australian government has levied 10 percent tax to international suppliers that offer digital products and services, such plans are being entertained by Netflix. The price hike might be the way to the company in recovering their profit, by passing their tax obligations to the services being paid by their customers.