Netflix Wants More Money, Testing Pricey New ‘Netflix Ultra’ Plan

The all-consuming 21st century god that is Netflix demands a heftier money sacrifice! Dig deep into your coin purses, lowly mortals, and bathe the great god Netflix in your hard-earned cash! With hopes of attracting even more dollars and cents, the streaming service is testing out a Netflix Ultra plan, which asks users to pay extra for Ultra HD content.

Would you shell out even more dough for Ultra HD or HDR formatted programs on Netflix? Netflix would like to think so, which is why they’re currently testing out Netflix Ultra. Per Variety:

“The Ultra plans cost $16.99 per month and is being tested in two versions. One offers four Ultra HD streams, while the existing $13.99 Premium plan would drop from four to two UHD streams. In the second offer, both Premium and Ultra customers would have access to four concurrent Ultra HD streams but only Ultra customers would have access to high dynamic range (HDR) content, which provides more vibrant color reproduction and higher contrast.”

Again, this is all in the testing phase, and only certain Netflix users will be given the option of trying this out. But will this really matter to most people? It’s safe to say that a large group of Netflix users tend to stream stuff on their laptops, or even their phones (ugh). As a result, Ultra HD quality probably doesn’t matter that much to them. I suppose this might appeal to cinephiles who care a great deal about the image quality of what they’re watching, but here’s the thing: Netflix isn’t exactly a cinephiles paradise. Yes, there’s a ton of content on the streaming platform. And yes, a lot of it is good. But in recent years, Netflix has embraced creating its own original movies and TV shows rather than just adding classic or well-known titles. Is anyone itching to watch TAU, Netflix’s new movie about a killer Alexa-like home assistant voiced by Gary Oldman, in Ultra HD? My guess would be no.

Netflix recently raised prices in late 2017, increasing the “HD tier to $10.99 per month (up from the previous $9.99) and the Premium plan from $11.99 to $13.99 per month. The single-stream, non-HD Basic plan remained unchanged at $7.99.” Prices will likely continue to increase over time, simply because Netflix wants that cold hard cash so they can line their pockets and also make even more original material. Original material that will then get buried amongst the thousands of other streaming titles. But hey, at least it’ll be in Ultra HD.

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