Netflix tests price increase under the guise of ultra-membership
Netflix already has several subscriptions, depending on what you think is important. You can now choose basic, standard and premium that cost 8, 11 and 14 euros respectively. If you like to watch on two screens at the same time you get standard, if you really have a lot of Netflixers at home, you can grab premiums, because then you can watch on four screens at the same time and get 4K support. That is all going to change with the ‘ultra’-abo that Netflix is testing.
Ultra lets you view ultra HD (4K) and HDR video on four devices simultaneously. If you have premium and think “yes, but now I have too?” Then you’re okay, because that’s where the pain of this new subscription is. The ludicrous fact is that with the introduction of the ultra-subscription the other possibilities with Netflix are considerably reduced. At premium you can only watch two screens at a time and with standard, that also goes back to one screen. Premium HDR support will also lose. In fact, this is nothing more than a price increase that is disguised as a new subscription.
The big Netflix A / B test
The strange thing is that the prices and possibilities seem to differ depending on whether you view Netflix in a browser, via mobile and even by country within Europe. So it seems that Netflix is testing a number of new subscription types for A / B testing within Europe, which is confirmed by a spokesman in relation to CNET . “Different price points and features are tested to better understand how consumers appreciate Netflix,” they say about it, which effectively means “we would like to earn more from the account-sharing executers in Europe”. It must be said that there is also a chance that it will not happen. If enough is canceled for these price increases or if no one seems interested, it could be that prices remain as they are.
However, if this becomes the new standard, you will be expected to pay two to three euros more for the same functionality than you currently do. That is already on top of the price increase that Netflix made last year. That is ultimately bad news for us as subscribers, especially if you have already paid 14 euros for premium. Now of course it is true that especially those subscriptions are shared by many people – certainly within the family – and that the price increase will be effectively shared. But then again: price increases are never fun, especially when it comes to a service that is as popular as Netflix in the Netherlan