Netflix Drops Prices in 30 Countries

Netflix has gone on a price-cutting spree in a bid to attract more subscribers, dropping prices in more than 30 countries in Asia, Europe, Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, and the Middle East. 

As the BBC reports(Opens in a new window), the countries include Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Croatia, the Philippines, Venezuela, Kenya, and Iran, and the planned cuts there will reportedly see some subscription charges dropping by half. (Sorry, the US, Canada, and the UK are not on the list.)

A Netflix spokesperson tells the BBC: “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.”

In a January earnings call (PDF(Opens in a new window)), Netflix Co-CEO Greg Peters said the company is looking to “offer a wide range of options for a wide range of consumers,” and that means “trying to deliver appropriate value at those different price points.”

Peters added: “There’s a bunch of people around the world in countries where we’re not deeply penetrated, and we have more opportunity to go attract them.”

Netflix has been battling a declining subscriber base amid high inflation and increased competition from other streaming services. In addition to looking at other markets, Netflix is also cracking down on password sharing. The practice was limited(Opens in a new window) earlier this month in Portugal, Canada, New Zealand, and Spain, where customers are required to pay an extra fee if they want friends and family who don’t live with them to use their subscription.  

In a blog post(Opens in a new window) when the limits were rolled out, the company said: “Over the last year, we’ve been exploring different approaches to address this issue in Latin America, and we’re now ready to roll them out more broadly in the coming months.” Thus far, the company has not detailed exactly how its password-sharing crackdown will work in the US.