Video streaming company Netflix has raised its subscription price for 4K streaming. The company now requires 4K viewers to sign up to its $11.99 'platinum' plan. That's a $3 price hike from the standard HD streaming plan, which was increased from $7.99 to $8.99 earlier this year.
Titles available for streaming in 4K format include 'The Blacklist,' 'Breaking Bad' and 'House of Cards,' along with other upcoming series. The new plan will grant access to the company's fairly limited collection of 4K content, and also allows four separate users to stream video at once via one account.
"We decided to move 4K UHD video into our four-stream plan for new members who sign up and care about the highest-quality video Netflix offers," a Netflix spokesman told Variety. The company also explained that the reason for the change was due to higher costs in producing, acquiring, and distributing 4K content, compared to conventional HD video, thus Ultra HD becomes a premium offering.
However, according to HD Guru, the price hike will only affect those who subscribed after 12 August, and all current subscribers who've already used Netflix's 4K offerings will not be asked to pay the premium. In addition to paying more for the service, users will also need a broadband connection of at least 25Mbps in order to stream and watch 4K content, and the current 4K service from Netflix will only function with a limited number of 4K TVs from Samsung, LG, Sony and Vizio.
Added Linux support
Linux has also officially received support for Netflix over the weekend, with Ubuntu, Fedora and Ubuntu-based Mint all now capable of allowing users to access the streaming service. Users of Debian or Gentoo may have to wait for a little longer.
Linux users must keep in mind that access to the streaming video service will only be possible through the Google Chrome web browser at this time. However it is likely that other web browsers will be updated to support the popular service.
