Netflix announce price rise to Irish subscription plans

Netflix is cheaper than many of its competitors despite the new price hike

Netflix has announced a rise in prices to some of its subscription plans here in Ireland, raising the cost for two of its three main subscription plans as it spends heavily on its own original content.

While there will no change to the company's basic single screen price of €7.99 a month, it has raised the price of its two-screen and four-screen subscription plans respectively.

The company's two-screen plan has increased by €1 to €10.99 a month, while the cost of its four-screen plan has increased by €2 to €13.99 a month.

The price increase here reflects the business' US plans, where it has announced the first rises in monthly fees in two years, hiking costs for two of its three main subscription plans as it spends heavily on its own original content.

The company's mid-range plan, which allows streaming on two devices at the same time, was increased to $10.99 per month from $9.99.

The top-tier plan, which allows streaming on four screens in high definition, was raised to $13.99 per month from $11.99. The basic plan fee remained at $7.99.

Shares in the global streaming pioneer rose as much as 4.5% to a record high of $192.80.

"Most investors believe that Netflix is priced well below its value to consumers and want to see the management continue to increase monetisation," Rob Sanderson analyst at MKM Partners said.

In 2011, Netflix raised prices for some customers by as much as $6, causing more than 800,000 US subscribers to desert the service.

A more gradual move in 2014 did not provoke the same outrage.

Netflix is cheaper than many of its competitors despite the current price hike.

HBO Now, the standalone streaming service of HBO that offers access to shows such as "Game of Thrones" and "Veep", is priced at $14.99 a month, while Hulu prices its service without commercials at $11.99 per month.

The higher pricing comes as the video streaming service spends heavily on original content and expanding outside the US.

Netflix had earlier said it would spend over $6 billion this year on original shows and expected to have negative free cash flow of $2 billion to $2.5 billion.