Irish customers who were among the first adoptees of online streaming service Netflix are set to face a price hike of €2 a month, or €24 a year, from May.

Those who signed up with the service when it first came to Ireland, have been paying a steady fee of €7.99 a month since, thus avoiding numerous price hikes in between. Now however, these loyal customers have a choice: start paying €9.99 a month to continue with their full HD service which also offers viewing on two screens, or stick with the €7.99 tariff, but receive standard definition content only and viewing on one screen at a time.

The change was first signalled in May 2014, with existing members allowed to stay on the lower tariff for a period of two years. Now however, this term is shortly drawing to a close, and Netflix’s Irish customers will be notified shortly of the change, with their options set out in an email.

“Impacted members will be clearly notified by email and within the service, so that they have time to decide which plan/price point works best for them,” Netflix said.

The streaming giant says it’s part of a process it calls being “ungrandfathered” and it is running out the same price hike in the UK as well.

Options

The US-based media giant currently has around 200,000 subscribers in Ireland who avail of its current one-screen (€ 7.99), two-screen (now € 9.99) or four-screen (€ 11.99) packages. The limit on screens is thought to counter the effects of account-sharing, whereby people can share their log-in details to the platform with numerous other people.