Netflix subscribers are getting something extra with their subscriptions. Those shelling out $20 each month for a top-dollar Netflix Premium subscription now have access to all-new features to bring their streaming experience to the next level, with the company on Wednesday introducing spatial audio on Premium while also expanding the number of devices on which subscribers can download programming.
Rishu Arora, Director of Product Management, announced the changes in a blog post, sharing, “Today, we’re excited to announce new features at no additional cost for members who are already on the Premium plan, choose to upgrade, or are signing up for the first time.” Among the new features is expanding the number of devices to which subscribers can download programming. While Premium subscribers could previously only download programming to four devices, Netflix has upped that number to six. However, concurrent streaming is still limited to four devices.
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The announcement also included incorporating spatial audio into the plan. Already found on other platforms, such as Apple Music, Arora announced that spatial audio is now available on 700 titles in the Netflix streaming library, including Stranger Things, The Watcher, Wednesday, and Knives Out: Glass Onion. Premium subscribers can identify titles with spatial audio via a new spatial audio badge on shows and movies. Spatial audio will be added to popular new titles as they’re released, including You, Your Place or Mine, Luther: The Fallen Sun, and Tour de France. Calling the new feature a “truly magical sound experience” that is “a game changer for the Premium plan viewing experience,” Arora said spatial audio allows Premium members to “enjoy the highest quality sound experience available.”
The new features, which come at no extra cost, only apply to subscribers of the Netflix Premium plan, meaning those subscribing to Netflix Standard, Netflix Basic, or the recently-added Netflix Basic with Ads will unfortunately miss out. The additional features come a little more than a year after the company hiked up the price on all of its plans ahead of the introduction of the ad-free tier. In January 2022, Netflix raised the price across all of its plans in both the United States and Canada by $1 or $2, a Netflix spokesperson explaining at the time that the increase would allow Netflix to “continue to offer a wide variety of quality entertainment options.”
Under the price hike, the Basic plan, which allows subscribers to watch on one screen at a time and does not include HD and Ultra HD, rose from $8.99 per month to $10 per month. That Standard plan, allowing subscribers to stream in HD on two screens at once, jumped from $12.99 per month to $15.50 per month. The Premium plan, meanwhile, saw a $2 hike, increasing from $18 per month to $20 per month. The Basic with Ads plan was introduced in November with a price tag of $6.99 per month. The subscription tier allows for viewing on one device at a time in HD but does not include Netflix’s full content catalog, with popular shows like The Crown and House of Cards, which are Netflix originals, as well as licensed shows like Breaking Bad and Grey’s Anatomy unable to be streamed.
