Introduction of films such as House of cards that can take full advantage of extra pixels on 4K displays meant that Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) would at one point be forced to increase its subscription fees. The giant streaming company has announced that it will be charging premium fees for its 4K streaming service.
Ability to Stream Four Videos
The platinum subscription package will now require subscribers to pat ways with $11.99 per month for the service, up from $8.99 that was instituted earlier in the year. The new premium plan will consequently allow users to stream up to four separate videos at once, on a single account compared to the current two on an HD subscription.
Netflix cites the increment in the subscription fee to an increase in costs for producing acquiring and distributing content. 4k services is only available to a limited number of TV’s, mostly from Samsung LG and Sony as it requires a minimum download speed of 25Mbps. Some of the programs on offer with the new 4K service include Breaking Bad and season two of House of cards as well as Ghostbusters and the Smurfs.
Price Hike to Affect New Customers
The price hike will mostly affect new customers who will have to cough the extra $3 with older customers being grandfathered into the service for the next two years. An increment of $3 is not expected be a great deal with 4K TV’s owners taking into consideration the cost of the TV alone. Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) is among the very few content providers that offer 4K content although the same is expected to improve with the expected changes in Hardware and bandwidth in the coming years.
YouTube is among the very few competitors in the space with Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) reportedly planning to unveil its own super-sized streaming service in the near future. Despite an increase in subscription fees, subscribers stand a chance to enjoy eye-popping visuals of up to 3840x 2160 in screen resolution.
