Many longtime North American Netflix subscribers will be faced with a price hike or a service reduction next month, part of a change to the price structure the company announced years ago.

And if Canadian Netflix subscribers are anything like their American cousins, most don’t know the change is coming.

Netflix raised the price for its HD service for new subscribers to $8.99 from $7.99 in 2014, and raised it again to $9.99 last year. But it “grandfathered” older subscribers, allowing them to retain their $7.99-a-month plan. As of next month, that ends.

Netflix told CBC News subscribers will be offered a choice: Keep your existing HD service at an increased price of $9.99 a month, or keep your existing $7.99-a-month plan, but for an SD service that can be accessed on only one device at a time.

According to analysts at UBS, the change will affect 37 per cent of Netflix subscribers in the U.S. And according to JPMorgan's research, 80 per cent of affected users don’t know the change is coming.