Netflix trialling more expensive Netflix

Netflix is reportedly trialling a new high-end "Ultra" subscription tier in Europe, priced above the current "Premium" option. Priced between €16.99 and €19.99, the Ultra tier adds HDR content as a premium feature. HDR content was previously included in the Premium tier, which for comparison, is billed at €13.99 per month in Europe.

HDR - short for High Dynamic Range - expands the range of contrast of video; essentially, the difference between how bright it can go and how dark it can go. This means deeper blacks and brighter whites, which in turns results in a wider colour space. Reds can be redder, blues can be bluer, and greens get greener, so images seem to have more depth. In terms of pure numbers, regular content can use 16 million colours. HDR takes this to over a billion. 

In some cases, European Netflix users have found that the that the introduction of the Ultra tier has had ripple effects. While customers paying for Ultra can stream on four screens, Premium and Standard subscription tiers now only support simultaneous viewing on two and one screens, respectively. In Australia, Premium currently allows viewing on four screens, and Standard on two. 

Netflix confirmed the Ultra tier in a statement given to CNET.

"We continuously test new things at Netflix and these tests typically vary in length of time," said a Netflix spokesperson. "In this case, we are testing slightly different price points and features to better understand how consumers value Netflix."

Locally, Netflix prices rose to $9.99 per month for Basic, $13.99 for Standard, and $17.99 for Premium this time last year. If Netflix ends up introducing the Ultra subscription tier locally, which seems inevitable to be quite honest, we'd expect it to see it priced between $19.99 and $21.99 per month.

Read more: the best movies on Netflix Australia

Alex Choros

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Alex Choros is the Managing Editor of WhistleOut Australia and an award-winning journalist. He's been writing about consumer technology for over a decade and is an expert on the Australian telco sector, to the point where he knows far too many phone and internet plans by heart. In addition to leading the WhistleOut editorial team, Alex is responsible for ruining the office Sonos with his troubled taste in music.

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