Netflix price increases drive consumers to consider ditching the streaming service

Yahoo Finance’s Dan Howley joins the Live show to discuss how Netflix's price increases may push consumers to leave streaming services in order to cut costs.

Video Transcript

BRIAN CHEUNG: If you had to pick one, which streamer would you ditch Yahoo Finance's tech editor Dan Howley joins us to explain whether consumers will start cutting away some subscriptions to afford others. Dan, this as some are starting to raise prices. So which one's got to go? Which one is it?

DAN HOWLEY: It's hard for me to say right out of the gate, but to be honest with you, I think at this point, it'll probably be a Netflix, right? I mean, just, you know--

BRIAN CHEUNG: Eesh.

DAN HOWLEY: Yeah, I know. I mean, look, they lost the 200,000 subscribers in the last quarter when they were supposed to be getting more than 2 million, according to analysts. They're expected to drop another 2 million in the next quarter. And to be frank, I'm one of the people that Netflix hates the most. I share my password. Rather, not my password-- I use my parents' password. I glom onto them. Sometimes we use my in-laws' password. But to be fair, I also share my YouTube TV account and my Spotify account with my parents. So it's a tit for tat.

But, you know, they're going to start cracking down on this. And obviously, they have plans in place to do this. They don't know exactly how they will, though. They're doing their plans in a number of countries like Chile and Costa Rica and Peru where they're adding an extra $2 to plans to get an extra two accounts on there so that if you want to stream, say, I want to use my parents' account, they would have to pay an extra $2 to allow me to, as well as my brother to, use it.

And so you look at the price of it right now. I mean, a top level subscription for Netflix is $19.99, right? So now we're looking at 21 bucks, 21.99, 22 bucks for the top level subscription with the ability to have streaming for me, my brother, and myself. That's on top of all the other platforms that we have. We have Hulu. We have Disney+. By the way, I pay for everyone's Disney+ as well. We have HBO Max, you know. So there's all these different subscriptions.

And the only way that we're able to get access to all this content is, frankly, to split it up amongst each other. We use it. Like I said, we're on YouTube TV and Hulu or Spotify, and Disney+. They're on Netflix. I mean, the idea that we're all going to have to then start chipping in even more on our side so that we can share it, I mean, it just, at some point--

AKIKO FUJITA: Well--

DAN HOWLEY: --becomes untenable.

AKIKO FUJITA: Dan, you know, I will also admit to using my parents' Netflix account. I also use their Prime account, by the way. But I do pay for some other accounts. That's an interesting chart because I wonder if it really does still come down to price for users. Or is it really just about good content?

DAN HOWLEY: I mean, look, content is part of it. And unfortunately, Netflix has been losing content. They do have, obviously, their big hits that come out. But they don't have things like "The Office" or "Friends" or shows that really had people going and bingeing over and over again, or just leaving them on throughout the night. That's what I do with "Bob's Burgers" on Hulu. And, you know, I think Peacock is another thing that we just signed up for to stream "The Office" as well.

But, you know, I think that Netflix is going to be something where we ditch it for a month when something new comes out, then we'll go back and get it, and then ditch it once we've finished streaming it. I think it's not going to be one of the things that we constantly re-up.

And, you know, I think as we see these kinds of price increases-- again, they just increased prices in January. So the idea that we would see something else on top of that, it just feels like it's untenable. So I think we're going to start going to the point where people are going to say, well, they don't have a show this month. I'm going to kill the subscription until it comes out.

BRIAN CHEUNG: I'm paying for my parents' Amazon Prime. How crazy is that? Ridiculous.

DAN HOWLEY: You're a good son. You're a good son.

AKIKO FUJITA: I hope Amazon is not listening because we all just admitted to using that for the full family. But Dan, a conversation that's going to continue, no doubt, because it does feel like people are kind of reaching their limit when it comes to those streaming services.