Netflix Has ‘No Plans on Price Increases,’ CEO Says

“We’ve had a great couple years at these price points,” Reed Hastings explains

Reed Hastings on Movie Theaters netflix
Getty Images

Netflix users, rejoice!

According to Reed Hastings, CEO of the streaming service, users shouldn’t expect to see a price hike anytime soon.

“We have no plans on price increases outside of inflation adjustments which we do in Brazil, which is the law there,” Hastings said on Monday during Netflix’s Q3 earnings call.

“We’ve had a great couple years at these price points and there’s a lot of competition entering the market,” Hastings continued. “What we’re focused on is, ‘how do we increase value to the consumer?’ By having more spectacular shows so that people watch more of Netflix. And over time, that will take care of itself but we don’t want to get overconfident just because we’ve had a good couple years here.”

Earlier this year, Netflix “ungrandfathered” existing users, meaning that the accounts that were paying $9 per month were now paying $10 — the same price as new customers.

At market close on Monday, Netflix stock’s trading price jumped $20 — or 20.2 percent — per share, thanks to a strong third-quarter in both earnings and subscriber growth.

Netflix actually doubled Wall Street earnings per share (EPS) mark, reporting 12 cents apiece versus the consensus-estimated 6 cents. Last year, the company had earned 8 cents per share in the comparable quarter.

The company also announced it has decided to drop its plans to launch in China for now. “The regulatory environment for foreign digital content services in China has become challenging,” Netflix said in a statement. “We now plan to license content to existing online service providers in China rather than operate our own service in China in the near term.”

Comments