Netflix hikes price of its most popular service

Existing members get a slight reprieve and will keep their current price for a year, the company said.

"To continue adding more TV shows and movies, including many Netflix original titles, we are modestly raising the price for some new members in the US, Canada and Latin America," Netflix spokeswoman Anne Marie Squeo said. She added the company is releasing nearly 450 hours of original and first-run content globally this year. (First-run means Netflix is the initial place you can watch something in a particular territory.)

Netflix has grown to 65 million subscribers thanks to its combination of international expansion and high-profile original content, such as the series "House of Cards" and "Orange Is the New Black." But those efforts come with big price tags, prompting the company to raise prices once last year in addition to the most recent hike. Thursday's understated announcement -- through a change to its website and an email to current members -- is similar to the last hike and starkly contrasts its price increases in 2011, when a 60 percent bump outraged US members and triggered a wave of defections.

The company raised prices by a euro in European markets this summer. The latest increase raises the price of the standard plan to $9.99 in the US, Canada and Latin American countries where the company prices its service in US dollars. Chile, Colombia and Mexico also are raising prices -- for all three plans -- in their local currencies.

Some people who were members before 2014's price increase were "grandfathered" through that hike with a guarantee to keep their price for two years; their prices will be unchanged until at least May 2016.