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T-Mobile has now confirmed that customers who participate in the Netflix On Us promotion are due to see a small increase on their monthly bill.
The confirmation is now live on the company’s website and makes it clear that starting from June 2 customers will be charged an additional $2 each month.
It would seem this is an unavoidable consequence of the across the board Netflix price increase and those looking to avoid paying any more have very few options.
T-Mobile says customers can opt to turn off the Netflix On Us feature before the increase takes effect, although that will of course end access to the video-streaming service.
Alternatively, customers can switch over to a new eligible Magenta plan as those plans will continue to offer access to Netflix without the price increase.
The new Magenta plans are essentially the same T-Mobile One plans that most subscribers are already on. There are some subtle differences but generally speaking this seems to be more of a rebranding exercise than anything else.
For example, the new plans appear to remain priced at the same rate as the One plans and so switching from one to the other is not necessarily going to impact financially on the user.
However it is worth noting that the Netflix On Us via an eligible One plan refers to the “Standard” version and that’s where one of the differences come in as the comparative Magenta plan only offers access to Netflix’s “Basic” plan. Essentially, although a user will be saving on the $2 price increase, they will be receiving a lesser Netflix product in return.
Those in need of understanding the difference between the two Netflix plans, the Basic plan does not offer content in HD and also restricts the number of simultaneous streams to one. This compares to the Standard plan which does provide HD playback as well as two streams at the same time.
According to T-Mobile, those who switch to the Magenta Plus (formerly the One Plus) plan will still get access to the Standard Netflix plan and without any additional cost.
Netflix first announced the price increase that’s now affecting T-Mobile customers in January of this year.
The increase resulted in a bump to all the Netflix plans and therefore affected all customers in the U.S., including those who might have been locked into a special promotional price.
The increase saw the Basic plan rise in price from $7.99 per month to $8.99. Likewise, the Standard plan jumped from $10.99 per month to $12.99, while the 4K-supported “Premium” plan also took a $2 hit – bringing the total up from $13.99 per month to $15.99.
T-Mobile first launched the Netflix On Us promotion back in late 2017 as an option for families on an eligible plan. Shortly after the promotion launched Netflix introduced a different price increase although on that occasion T-Mobile was able to continue offering the promotion without it impacting on the price customers paid.
Almost immediately following this latest price increase, T-Mobile initially said it was once again keeping the price the customer pays the same, although it did also make it clear that was unlikely to be a permanent move.