For the first time since launching the service in South Africa in 2016, Netflix is hiking the prices of its Standard and Premium packages. The change goes into effect immediately, so you’ll have a higher bill in the coming month.
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Netflix has said in a statement that the Standard plan increases from R139 p/m to R159 p/m, which constitutes a 14 percent increase. Subscribers of the Premium plan take a slightly bigger hit. Offering 4K streaming and more concurrent users per account, the price is increasing from R169 p/m to R199 p/m, which is an 18 percent increase. The Basic plan and the Mobile plan, which costs R99 p/m and R49 p/m respectively, will not be increased in price.
In the statement the company said that the increase has nothing to do with the rand losing value recently. The increases “reflect improvements to our catalogue of movies and shows and the quality of our service — and, most importantly, so that we can continue giving our members in South Africa more options and continuously increasing value.”
It makes sense to increase the price, since it has been flat for more than 5 years now. Furthermore, soon we will be getting more bang for our buck – Netflix will start releasing games on the platform that will be free and available with your normal subscription.
“The increases to the Standard and Premium plans will roll out to existing members over the next several weeks, while the increased prices will apply to new members immediately,” Netflix said. “Members will be notified through e-mail and will also receive a notification within the app 30 days ahead of their price increase. Timing will be based on the specific member’s billing cycle and will be rolled out over the course of the next few months.”
