• by Alex Weprin , May 31, 2019

The company is raising prices of its standard and premium plans by £1 and £2, respectively. They are the first price increases in the U.K. since 2017.

The company announced its price increases in January, starting with the U.S. and Canada, with other countries that use the U.S. dollar following.

Now the U.K., which has around 10 million Netflix subscribers, is feeling the pinch.

Netflix has been raising prices from a position of strength. It has far and away the most subscribers of any subscription video service, and is the only offering remotely international in scale.

Hulu, the second-largest streaming service in the U.S., has said only that it plans to roll out an international strategy at some point soon, while HBO has only a limited international streaming presence.

Still, the price hikes come as fresh competition looms. Disney’s Disney+ will, eventually, be global in nature.

The company has made no secret of why it is raising prices. It has told investors wants to focus on profitability in the coming years -- while still  loading up on original content, including content produced in the local markets where it operates.

These two factors, combined with the company’s significant marketshare, make price hikes less risky.