DECIDER
Netflix is dropping its prices, not raising them, for a slew of customers. The catch? They’re all outside of the U.S. The streamer is slashing monthly subscription costs in more than 30 countries, according to a Thursday report published by The Wall Street Journal.
Countries getting price cuts from Netflix are partially located in the Middle East and Latin America. Subscribers in Yemen, Jordan, Libya and Iran are affected by the price changes, as well as Netflix viewers in Ecuador, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
The company is also cutting subscription costs in Croatia, Slovenia and Bulgaria, plus Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines. In some instances, the streamer is cutting costs by as much as 50%, per WSJ.
One analyst told the outlet that Netflix’s move to cut prices “definitely goes against the recent trends not just for Netflix, but for the broader streaming industry.”
Following the WSJ‘s Thursday report, a Netflix spokesperson confirmed to Yahoo Finance that the company is making changes to its pricing structure. They said, “We’re always exploring ways to improve our members’ experience. We can confirm that we are updating the pricing of our plans in certain countries.”
Customers in the U.S. and Western Europe are unaffected by the changes. A basic Netflix plan with ads currently costs $6.99 per month in the U.S., but the most expensive plan — the premium option — is still $19.99 per month.
And prices could continue to rise for U.S. consumers. Netflix caused an uproar last month when their plans for password sharing leaked early. The details, which were first published on The Streamable earlier this month, included the key point that Netflix plans to charge users an extra fee if someone outside of their household wants to stream from their account.
Netflix has already rolled out paid account sharing in Latin America and recently launched the feature in Canada, New Zealand, Portugal and Spain. Executives previously told shareholders they planned to incorporate paid account sharing “more broadly” at the end of Q1 2023, or early April.