Netflix and More Subscription Services Are ‘Updating Their Terms’ — What It Means for Your Wallet
Written by
Dawn Allcot
Edited by
Cory Dudak
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How many emails do you get from companies notifying you of updates to their terms of agreement? Often, these terms are couched in legalese related to customer privacy. While we should always pay attention to how we allow companies to use our data, these notices are all too easy to ignore.
Price hikes or reductions in service are indeed coming to popular streaming services, as well as to theme parks. Smart consumers should pay attention to emails announcing “changes to user agreements,” because it could mean making some decisions about your household budget and where you choose to spend your money in 2025.
Netflix
Netflix was upfront about changes, but called the price increase an “Upcoming price update” in an email to subscribers. Standard Netflix subscribers (ad-free) will now pay $17.99 per month, beginning March 9, 2025, compared to the prior $15.49 per month.
A standard plan with ads goes up from $6.99 to $7.99. A Premium plan, which supports 4K viewing and viewing on up to four devices at one time, went up by $2, from $22.99 to $24.99, according to CBS News.
Disney+, Hulu and ESPN
In early February 2025, Disney+ sent an email with the subject line, “We’re updating our Subscriber Agreement.” Terms applied to new subscribers of the service as of January 27, and go into effect for prior or existing subscribers on March 24, 2025.
As part of the agreement, certain streaming titles may now include ads, even in the “no ads” or “ad free” subscription tiers. Essentially, subscribers will pay the same price, $15.99 per month, for Disney+ with no ads, or $16.99 for the Disney+, Hulu and ESPN Plus bundle with no ads. But the services may now show ads on certain programming at their discretion.
Disney already raised prices by $1 or $2 (depending on the tier) in late 2024. The experts at Games Radar recently wrote, “I doubt we’d get another before Fall 2025.”
Nevertheless, read those terms of agreement so you know what to expect.
Six Flags Theme Parks
Following its merger with Cedar Fair in 2024, Six Flags theme parks gave many of its legacy members two price “updates” in 12 months. Last February, the company announced it would increase prices on Gold, Platinum, Diamond and Diamond Elite memberships that fell below the company’s “new minimum rate threshold” as of late March, according to an email sent to members.
On February 25, 2025, the company emailed another “Membership Update,” announcing that it was doing away with the mid-level Platinum tier membership and “upgrading” members to Diamond, at a price of $15.99 per month — $4 more than the original price increase for Platinum members, and $1 less than legacy Diamond members.
While many other theme parks sell season tickets, with price hikes expected each year, Six Flags’ membership concept is similar to a subscription service. Many people tend to put their subscriptions on autopilot and don’t think about the costs of the services they receive. It pays to take a few minutes to read emails from these companies so you don’t end up paying more, and/or receiving less value when a company “updates” its subscription.
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