Netflix Users Blame ‘Friends’ for Price Hike

Netflix has raised its prices, and some users think the streaming service’s recent deal to keep the streaming rights to Friends is to blame.

The company announced a change to its price structure on Tuesday, with a “Standard” monthly subscription increasing $2 to $12.99. The “Premium” tier price also rose $2 to $15.99, and the “Basic” tier rose $1 to $8.99. This reveal comes on the heels of Netflix reportedly paying up to $100 million to keep streaming Friends for another year.

The reason Netflix wrote rights owner Warner Bros. Television such a large check was presumably the wave of backlash users emitted once Friends‘ original removal was announced. Plus, the NBC series, which ended in 2004, was apparently one of the service’s most-watched shows.

Once the price hike was revealed, some users connected the dots and presumed this lucrative new deal was to blame for the price adjustment. Upset Netflix subscribers soon took to Twitter to complain about the situation and put the blame on Friends fans.

“I hope everyone’s happy with the same episodes of Friends y’all couldn’t live without,” user Chandler Gibson wrote in a viral tweet, which has been liked more than 108,000 times and retweeted more than 26,000 times.

Arguments soon erupted in Gibson’s replies, with many Friends fans simply dropping in sassy gifs and pointing out that Gibson shared the same first name as David Schwimmer’s Friends character. The sitcom’s detractors still carried on, asking if Netflix could offer a subscription plan that does not include Friends.

“Can I get the No Friends subscription rate please?” one user wrote. “Never watched an episode all the way through. Just couldn’t deal with the idiocy.”

Another user wrote, “I think everyone who hasn’t streamed Friends in the last 12 months should keep the same price and make those that watch it suffer.”

Debates soon turned to not just the monetary issue, but also the quality of Friends itself.

“I still think Friends is overrated,” one Twitter user wrote. “Not that it isn’t good, but I don’t get why it’s so ‘amazing.’ Is it for the meme of it? Is that why everybody acts like it’s the best thing in [TV] history?”

However, it appears the fuss will not be enough for Netflix to walk back its new pricing structure. Plus, many users will not be bothered enough by the $2 monthly upcharge to unsubscribe

“Its only $2 extra a month,” one subscriber wrote. “If you’re that hard up for it you have other issues.”

Photo Credit: Warner Bros. Television