Netflix price increase 2021: How to avoid the price hike and downgrade

From February 2021 a Premium Netflix subscription will increase from £11.99 to £13.99 - a £2 bump per month, equating to £24 a year more on your annual bill.

This will only affect the Premium plan - i.e. 4K Ultra-HD quality with HDR (high dynamic range), plus the ability to download some titles - while the Standard plan (Full HD for up to two screens at a time) remains at £9.99 a month, and the Basic plan (720p for one screen) continues at £5.99 a month.

Netflix's justification for this price hike is more investment. The company is projected to spend $19 billion over the course of 2021 - which is an extra $2 billion more than in 2020 - to bring more shows, in the utmost quality, to your streaming service screens. The company had already bumped the prices in the USA, where a Premium plan is $17.99 and a Standard plan is $13.99.

But what if you don't fancy the prospect of paying £13.99 a month? Well, you can downgrade to Full HD only, on the Standard plan, as so:

• Go to Netflix.com in a browser and sign into your account

• Hover over the avatar top right, select Account from the drop menu

• Under 'Plan Details' select 'Change plan'

• Choose 'Next Plan: Standard' and the blue Continue button

That's it, job done. But do consider that you won't be able to view content in greater than Full HD (1080p) resolution, which means waving goodbye to both 4K resolution and HDR. You will also max out at two screens. Lastly, you won't be able to temporarily download content for future viewing like you can on the future plan.

The choice, of course, is yours. If you relish the 4K Netflix experience - and most shows are now shot in the Ultra-HD format - and have a big-screen 4K telly to enjoy the experience on then we suggest sticking with the top-end package. But if every penny counts then that annual saving might be the better choice for you - especially if viewing on smaller screens where Ultra-HD resolution can become negatable anyway.

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