As many people know, T-Mobile has offered free Netflix subscriptions to most customers for years now. A year ago, the company adjusted the offer to force everyone to the “Netflix with ads” plan, a move that many people weren’t too happy about. Not only that, the new ad-filled plan locked some content out, too.
Earlier this week, Netflix announced plans to yet again raise prices, despite record subscriber numbers (19 million new subscribers in 2024). This obvious corporate greed—er, I mean, profitable shareholder move—caused many to wonder if T-Mobile would pass those costs onto their customers. The answer is: maybe.
According to an internal memo shared with us here at The Mobile Report, T-Mobile will be covering the cost increase for customers “enjoying” the Netflix with ads subscription. However, customers who have chosen to upgrade their Netflix plan to Standard or Premium and pay the difference will, in fact, face price increases.
Netflix: On January 21, Netflix announced a price increase to its plans. For customers enjoying Netflix Standard (w/Ads) ON US, we’ve got them covered with no changes to their monthly bill! Customers who have upgraded to Netflix Standard or Premium will continue to receive their $6.99/mo. T-Mobile discount. Next week, we will notify our Netflix subscribers of these changes via SMS.
Internal T-Mobile Note
This is obviously pretty annoying. There’s no telling why T-Mobile is raising their compensation to $7.99 for the “with ads” customers but not for everyone else, but we could take a guess.
It’s very likely Netflix wants to maintain that delicious ad revenue from the lower tier plans, and to compensate the lost revenue from the ad-free plans, they’ve asked T-Mobile not to cover that difference. That’s purely speculation of course.
The price increases aren’t a flat $1 increase across all plans, of course. Standard with Ads is going up by $1, but the ad-free Standard plan is going up by $2.50, and the Premium plan is going up by $2. Still, T-Mobile could’ve given everyone the full $7.99 credit instead of being stingy.
At the end of the day, the chart below will show if you will pay more for Netflix on your T-Mobile bill moving forward.
| Netflix Plan Name | Previous Cost | New Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Standard w/Ads | $0 | $0 |
| Standard (No ads) | $8.50 | $11 |
| Premium | $16 | $18 |
The changes are taking effect “immediately”, with customers set to pay these increases on their next bill cycle.
T-Mobile says they will be informing customers of these changes starting next week via SMS text messages.
