Netflix price pain

South African residents are paying up to R60 more per month for their Netflix subscriptions than when the streaming giant first introduced rand pricing in 2018.

The company’s last price hike came in mid-May 2025, when it quietly increased the pricing of its Premium, Standard, and Mobile subscriptions.

While prices for new subscribers have already gone up, not all existing subscribers have seen their fees increase. Netflix is emailing subscribers a month before their price increase takes effect.

Netflix’s billing system charges customers monthly on the date they signed up. Based on the emails MyBroadband has seen, only subscribers whose next billing date was after 7 June received a notice.

While Netflix has only increased its prices twice since introducing rand pricing in 2018, its Premium subscription has seen a 35.5% increase since then.

At the same time, prices on its Standard plan have increased by 28.8% since 2018, while its Mobile plan, introduced in 2021, has received a 20.4% increase.

It should be noted that the latest price adjustment is the only one in which Netflix Mobile prices increased. The latest price increases are as follows:

• Netflix Premium — increasing by R30 per month from R199 to R229 (15.1%)
• Netflix Standard — increasing by R20 per month from R159 to R179 (12.6%)
• Netflix Mobile — first-ever price increase from R49 to R59 (20.4%)

Before its most recent increase, Netflix last amended its South African prices in 2021. The change saw Premium’s pricing increase from R169 to R199 per month.

At the same time, Netflix increased the price of its Standard plan from R139 to R159. Netflix’s Basic plan has not received a price increase since 2018.

The table below summarises Netflix’s price changes for its Premium, Standard, Basic, and Mobile subscriptions since it first introduced rand pricing in 2018.

Vodacom and MTN want Netflix to pay them

The Association of Communications and Technology (ACT) recently reiterated its stance that over-the-top (OTT) players like Netflix should contribute towards network costs in South Africa.

The ACT focuses on matters important for the broader ICT sector in South Africa and says it provides a unified voice for the sector in the local economy.

Vodacom Group CEO Shameel Joosub and MTN South Africa CEO Charles Molapisi, among several other executives in the mobile network operator sector, sit on the ACT board.

In late May 2025, ACT CEO Nomvuyiso Batyi said OTT players like Netflix consume significant bandwidth within South African networks, without contributing to their maintenance or build costs.

“It is time to get tough, especially to those over-the-top players who use a lot of bandwidth, especially in the form of video. They generate a lot of traffic,” said Batyi.

“We are saying that there are a number of options that they can look at, but they need to contribute towards the maintenance and the building of the infrastructure within the South African context.”

She added that these players have long benefited from not contributing to these costs, adding that they could achieve their contribution through a tax or by building infrastructure for everyone’s benefit.

According to Batyi, streaming players have only invested in network infrastructure for their own benefit thus far.

“You will see, with the members that I represent, they would go out of their way to share infrastructure with other players,” she said.

She said the trend creates an uneven playing field, with local broadcasters having to pay signal distribution fees and, if they are satellite-based, satellite network operators.

“It’s not the same with OTT players. They are the ones who make money. There’s no sharing of revenue with anyone. They get to keep everything to themselves,” Batyi stated.

“We are saying that, because they use a lot of bandwidth within the networks, they have to contribute. They have to make sure they put in that money.”