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Netflix hikes subscription fees again, now $9.99 for new customers

Taylor Schilling, left, and Uzo Aduba in a scene from "Orange Is the New Black."
Taylor Schilling, left, and Uzo Aduba in a scene from "Orange Is the New Black.". AP Photo/Netflix, Paul Schiraldi, File

TORONTO – Netflix is betting that most consumers are willing to pay an extra $1 a month to binge on “House of Cards” and “Orange is the New Black.”

The popular streaming service has implemented another price hike for new customers, its second in about a year and a half.

Canadians looking to sign up for Netflix’s standard plan will now pay $9.99 a month.

The basic plan, which does not offer high definition video quality and only permits one stream at a time, remains at $7.99 a month.

The premium plan, which offers up to four simultaneous streams with the same login and ultra high definition 4K content, also holds steady at $11.99 monthly.

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Netflix last raised the price for its standard service in May 2014, when it asked for $1 more while also launching the basic tier. At the time, Netflix said existing customers wouldn’t see a bill increase for two years.

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On Thursday, Netflix said standard-plan customers not already grandfathered into a lower price will continue to pay $8.99 until October 2016.

The company would not say whether the standard plan is Netflix’s most popular in Canada.

“To continue adding more TV shows and movies including many Netflix original titles, we are modestly raising the price for some new members in the U.S., Canada and Latin America,” the company said in a statement.

In a telephone poll of 4,002 anglophone Canadians conducted for the Media Technology Monitor last fall, 39 per cent said they had access to a Netflix subscription, up from 26 per cent in 2013.

MTM also found that 82 per cent of Netflix subscribers said they used the streaming service every week.

The results are considered accurate within 1.5 percentage points 19 times out of 20.

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