Posted in: Movies, Netflix, Opinion, TV | Tagged: netflix, opinion, SAG-AFTRA, streaming

Netflix Price Hikes; SAG-AFTRA Confusion; Streaming Data Defense

Netflix has price hikes happening in the U.S., U.K. & France - but seems to have forgotten that SAG-AFTRA talks are NOT "ongoing" (and more).

Along with talks of increased subscriber numbers, changing how streaming executives get pay increases moving forward, the first venture into live-streaming, and other topics, Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos had three key areas of discussion that caught our attention during today's third-quarter earnings report. First up, expect some plan pricing increases in the U.S., U.K., and France. Following that, we learn that whoever drafted the wording of the report did so before the AMPTP (which Netflix is a member of) shut down negotiations last week (with Sarandos offering his take on what caused it). Finally, the streaming executive explains that Netflix was keeping streaming data on films & series because it cares about its creative community. Here are the highlights:

Netflix Raising Prices on Some Plans in U.S., U.K. & France: Good news? Netflix with Ads ($6.99) and the Standard Plan (15.49) will remain unchanged in the three regions. Bad news? The U.S. Premium subscription is now $22.99 a month (up from $19.99), and the U.S. Basic plan is now $11.99 (up from $9.99, but no longer available to new members). For the U.K. and France, the adjusted prices for the Ads plan, Basic, Standard & Premium are, respectively, UK £4.99/£7.99/£10.99/£17.99 and France 5.99€/10.99€/ 13.49€/19.99€.

Netflix Having "Ongoing" SAG-AFTRA Talks – But With Who? In the streamer's third-quarter earnings report, Netflix had this to share regarding the still-ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike. "The last six months have been challenging for our industry given the combined writers and actors strikes in the US. While we have reached an agreement with the WGA, negotiations with SAG-AFTRA are ongoing…" Except, well… they're not "ongoing" at all. In fact, it was the AMPTP who said that they were too far apart from the actors' union and walked away from the negotiating table (still, as of this writing).

Sarandos was a bit more attuned to what was actually going on than the streamer's earnings report was (especially since he's been in the room and the earnings report left a lot to be desired on this topic). "We spent hours and hours with SAG-AFTRA over the last few weeks, and we were actually very optimistic that we were making progress," Sarandos shared on Wednesday – offering the AMPTP's message regarding what it claims SAG-AFTRA was after that reportedly shut down the talks. "But then, at the very end of our last session together, the guild presented this new demand – a subscriber levy unrelated to viewing or success, and this really broke our momentum, unfortunately."

Netflix: We're Doing the Creative Community a Favor Holding Back Streaming Data: "Streaming itself is not that exotic anymore. We've been doing it for 18 years. At the beginning, we thought there was a hard kind of apples-and-oranges comparison between [linear TV] ratings and streaming. I think we've gotten to a place where it's mostly based on engagement, and it does measure the value of watching, and that things will become much more transparent the way that TV has always had ratings and music has always had Billboard and theatrical has always had box office. So, it'll be much more common," Sarandos shared when discussing making the data on films & series available to the folks creating them (something the WGA earned in its agreement and SAG-AFTRA is fighting for in their negotiations).

But while the tides may be changing, Sarandos added that the streamer's resistance to sharing data was done out of concern for the creative community. "Our creators felt like they were pretty trapped in this kind of overnight ratings world and weekend box office world defining their success and failures," the co-CEO explained, arguing that the concern was more about the talent and not on what would make Wall Street happy. "And as we all know, a show might have enormous success down the road, and it wasn't captured in that opening box office." Relationships with talent, rather than business objectives, motivated the lack of transparency, he added.

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