Weekly Story

Netflix announces immediate fee increase for new UK subscribers

Netflix is increasing its monthly fee for streaming movies and television shows from £5.99 to £6.99, hoping that the "House of Cards effect" will keep subscribers from deserting to the rival Amazon/Lovefilm service. The price increase will take effect immediately for new subscribers but will be delayed for two years for existing members. Netflix will allow subscribers to continue paying £5.99 a month if they opt for a lower-resolution "SD" quality service. It also has a multiple-users service for £8.99 a month which allows four users to view programmes at the same time on a single monthly account. In an email to subscribers this morning, Netflix said: "In orderto continue adding more films and TV programmes, we are increasing our price from £5.99 to £6.99 for new members. As a thank you for being a member of Netflix already, we guarantee that your plan and price will not change for two years." Netflix is raising prices not just in the UK but almost across the board for its 48 million global subscribers.

My opinion:

I think that Netflix are taking a very big risk in increasing the price, as they could not attract new customers and maybe loose their old customers. Even though in the email they said they for the existing customers they are not rising the price for another two years, i think it could still affect the current customers because they might not like this decisions as they will call themselves loyal customers for choosing netflix. I think this is a very big step which they are taking and it could be beneficial or it could affect the business very badly. They will also be benefiting from it as they will then receive £6.99 where they use to receive £5.99. 

I think this could also change the mind of people who were thinking Netflix as they might want to find someone cheaper than netflix. This means Netflix will not be getting extra customers or attracting new customers because they have increased their prices and i think customers will always like to save money which means they are likely to change sources and move to something like LoveFilm, which i think to attract customers they offer a first three month free trail, where as netflix only offer one month free trail. 

Weekly story

One Direction coverage boosts Sun on Sunday sales by 2%

The opening night of One Directions latest tour helped boost the Sun on Sundays sales by 2% last month. It went to 1.7 million the biggest riser of all Sunday papers. The paper also saw sales climb with scoops about boxer Amir Khan and actor Kym Marsh. Its rivals the Mail on Sunday and the Sunday Mirror were also up – the Mail on Sunday growing by 0.7% on the previous month to 1,566,728, while the Trinity Mirror title was marginally up by 0.1% to 928,697.The Sunday People was up 0.8% on the previous month to 373,440 (but down 11.3% year-on-year) with the Sunday Express up 1.1% to 428,337 (down 6.8% on the year).The Sunday Times was down just over 1% on the previous month to 830,404, down 5.9% on the same month in 2013, with the Sunday Telegraph down 1.8% on the month, and 2.3% year-on-year, to 411,003.The Independent on Sunday was the only quality title to register a monthly increase, up 1% to 101,554, down 11.1% on the year.

My View:

In my opinion i think that the reason why the Sun On Sunday saw a sales rise of 2% is because of One Direction as their tour helped boost Sun On Sundays sales. It also shows that almost all popular papers were seeing some rise in their sales, i think this is because the stories which they are distributing are very latest and mean something to the audience which is why they are purchasing news papers. Even though the paper saw so much decline on year to year, now they might be seeing some good news. I still think that this might only be for only a little time, then sales are then again likely to drop because newspapers are in decline. Its all about the digital media and how thats increasing sales and revenue each year.