{"id":603270,"date":"2026-08-24T16:26:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T16:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/603270\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T16:26:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T16:26:10","slug":"netflix-disney-and-amazon-price-rises-in-western-europe-highest-in-world-television-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/603270\/","title":{"rendered":"Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon price rises in western Europe \u2018highest in world\u2019 | Television industry"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Subscribers to Netflix, Disney+ and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/media\/amazon-prime-video\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Amazon Prime Video<\/a> in western Europe have faced higher price increases than in any other market in recent years, according to research.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Over the past four years the world\u2019s largest subscription video streaming services have dramatically changed their business models introducing lower-priced, basic advertising tiers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/media\/2022\/oct\/13\/netflix-launches-499-package-with-adverts-to-lure-cost-conscious-streamers\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">to attract new subscribers<\/a>, while also increasingly monetising users willing to pay more for a premium experience.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Research by Ampere Analysis showed that a series of price rises over the past three years, to fund the production of content and drive profits, have led to western European subscribers being hit by the largest average price increases.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Over this period the average increase in the cost of a monthly subscription has risen by $1.86 (\u00a31.36) \u2013 more than the US, the world\u2019s biggest streaming market, at $1.70 \u2013 and all other world regions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Pricing in different markets is influenced by a number of factors, including domestic competition and household income, with subscribers in sub-Saharan Africa facing the smallest average price increase of less than $1 over the past three years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">In March, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/media\/netflix\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Netflix<\/a> increased prices in the US for the second time in a little over a year. UK subscribers last faced price increases, ranging from \u00a31 to \u00a32 a month, in February 2025, the first increase since October 2023.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The most recent price increases pushed the cost up \u00a31 to \u00a35.99 a month for the basic package with ads, and up \u00a32 to \u00a312.99 a month for Netflix\u2019s standard ad-free package.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Netflix UK\u2019s recently published financial figures for last year show that the streaming company passed \u00a32bn in annual revenues for the first time. The record \u00a32.06bn marked an 11% increase on the \u00a31.85bn reported in 2024.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The company, which also reported a healthy increase in pre-tax profits from \u00a363m to \u00a372.5m, said the revenue boost was \u201cdriven primarily by a 7% growth in the average number of paid memberships and by higher average monthly revenue per paying membership\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Disney+ last moved to raise prices in the UK and US in September and October last year, with the cost of a UK subscription to its package with advertising \u00a35.99 a month and standard ad-free tier \u00a39.99 a month, or \u00a399.90 annually.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Amazon introduced a \u00a32.99 monthly fee on top of its Prime Video membership for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/2023\/dec\/27\/amazon-prime-video-streaming-content-to-include-limited-advertisements\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">users wanting to pay to avoid seeing ads<\/a> in February 2024.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">While semi-regular price rises have become a facet of the streaming sector, Ampere\u2019s research also showed that the scale of each bump up in subscription charges has dropped significantly \u201cas consumers reach limits on willingness to pay\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><a data-ignore=\"global-link-styling\" href=\"#EmailSignup-skip-link-13\" class=\"dcr-76akua\">skip past newsletter promotion<\/a>Free newsletter | Every weekday<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-vf9hps\">Sign up to Business Today<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1r7my33\">Get set for the working day \u2013 we&#8217;ll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning<\/p>\n<p><img src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/500.jpg\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"dcr-xiq31o\"\/><\/p>\n<p id=\"EmailSignup-skip-link-13\" tabindex=\"0\" aria-label=\"after newsletter promotion\" role=\"note\" class=\"dcr-76akua\">after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Average price rises across the three streaming companies have fallen from 24% of the previous subscription price in 2023-24 to 14% in 2025-26.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">In dollar terms the streamers\u2019 ad-free subscription packages have received larger price increases than their tiers that include ads, which are targeted at much more cost-conscious consumers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Jaanika Juntson, a senior research manager at Ampere Analysis, said: \u201cThe decline in price increases comes as streamers diversify how they monetise their audiences.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cAs streaming businesses mature, revenue growth is becoming less reliant on price increases, while intense competition is also making streamers increasingly mindful of how they are positioned against rivals.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Last week it was reported that the Duchess of Sussex was in talks to make her acting comeback in Guy Ritchie\u2019s Netfix series The Gentlemen, shortly after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/uk-news\/2026\/aug\/19\/prince-harry-and-meghan-moving-back-to-britain-this-month\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">reports<\/a> that Meghan and the Duke of Sussex were poised to return to live in the UK six years after moving to the US.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">However, multiple subsequent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/film\/2026\/aug\/22\/meghan-markles-casting-in-the-gentlemen-reportedly-withdrawn-after-uk-backlash\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">reports<\/a> suggest that Meghan, who made her name in the legal drama Suits, is not in fact in the running for a role in the third season of The Gentlemen, which is yet to receive an official green light from Netflix. In 2020 the Duke and Duchess of Sussex signed a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/media\/2020\/sep\/02\/prince-harry-meghan-markle-netflix-deal\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">multiyear Netflix deal<\/a>, reportedly worth $100m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Subscribers to Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video in western Europe have faced higher price increases than in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":603271,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,61,60],"class_list":["post-603270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=603270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/603271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=603270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=603270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=603270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}