• Netflix has reportedly slashed subscription prices in 30 countries. Some countries have seen subscription costs effectively halved.
• These include countries in the Sub-Saharan Africa region, as well as in Latin America, Asia and Eastern Europe.
• Unfortunately, no price cuts have come to the South African market as of yet.

Streaming giant Netflix has had its back against the wall as of late. Recently it has launched a series of efforts in maintaining its subscriber growth outside of publishing new content, and while it has seen success in this regard, it seems bent on increasing its profits through any avenue.

Earlier this month, Netflix finally announced how it would be cracking down on password sharing, and introduced new details about its paid account sharing.

Now as February comes to a close, a rare move from Netflix will see its subscription prices slashed in many of its markets. This is in the hopes of keeping subscribers amid decreasing consumer spending worldwide and ever-rising competition from other streamers.

According to a report from the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), subscription prices are being cut back in over 30 countries. These include Middle Eastern countries such as Yemen, Jordan, Libya and Iran, Eastern European countries like Croatia, Slovenia and Bulgaria and finally countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

The WSJ report only highlights Kenya as a country that will see reduced prices, but other countries in the market are also expected to see cuts.

As of right now, however, we can confirm that South African subscription prices for Netflix remain unchanged.

Other regions that will see changes to pricing include Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Ecuador.

In some markets, the price of subscriptions has been effectively halved.

Others will see smaller decreases. In the Balkan states, for example, Cord Cutters News confirms that Netflix is now charging around €3 less for the Basic plan, €2 less for Standard plans and €2 less for Premium plans.

According to its latest financials (PDF) the Europe, Middle East and Asia market is the company’s largest in terms of the sheer number of paid subscribers at around 76 million as of Q4 2022.

Netflix hinted at upcoming price cuts in some markets during an earnings call held in January. Here co-CEO Greg Peters said that subscription prices may be curtailed in order to attract more customers in certain regions.

“We seek to serve more members around the world in trying to deliver appropriate value at those different price points, and we’re doing a good job expanding that range,” Peters said at the time.

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

For now, we will await official communication on which all countries will see reductions.

Reuters reports that Netflix stock fell nearly 5 percent on the back of the price-cutting news.

[Image – Venti Views on Unsplash]