Netflix’s Price Hike and Opening Day Debut. Plus, HBO's ‘Harry Potter’ and the Millennial Nostalgia Era.

The Town with Matthew Belloni

The Ringer

Society & Culture

4.3 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 30 March 2026

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Matt is joined by Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw to discuss why Netflix has raised its prices twice in the past 18 months and the growing prominence of ad tiers on streaming services. They also talk about Opening Day baseball airing on Netflix, the surging MLB ratings, and who might be the biggest buyer for baseball rights in 2028 (00:00). Matt finishes the show with a prediction about the new HBO 'Harry Potter' series (25:20). Host: Matt Belloni Guest: Lucas Shaw Producers: Craig Horlbeck and Jon Jones Theme Song: Devon Renaldo The Clyburn family searches for connection in Montana's Madison Valley. The Madison, New Series now streaming - only on Paramount+ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode of The Town is brought to you by The Madison, the new original series on Paramount Plus.
0:10.2	Its Academy Award nominee Taylor Sheridan's most intimate story yet, a New York City family is uprooted to Montana after an unexpected tragedy.
0:18.6	In the quiet majesty of the Madison Valley,
0:22.3	they confront love and loss,
0:25.7	discovering resilience and the transformative power of family,
0:27.3	and the land that grounds them.
0:29.2	Led by a powerhouse cast,
0:31.2	Academy Award nominee Michelle Pfeiffer and Golden Globe nominee Kurt Russell.
0:33.5	Don't miss the Madison,
0:34.9	the highly anticipated new series streaming now,
0:38.7	only on Paramount Plus.
0:41.8	It is Monday, March 30th.
0:43.6	Stop me if you've heard this one before.
0:45.4	Netflix just raised its prices.
0:51.0	The standard plan, that's no ads, is rising by $2 a month from $18 to $20.
0:56.6	The standard ad-supported tier is going up $1 to nine bucks a month. And the premium goes up to $28. That's the second price hike in about a year for Netflix. And very
1:02.5	upsetting for Craig or recently became a real adult and stopped using his parents' account.
1:07.0	This makes Netflix the most expensive standalone service, which kind of makes sense they're spending the most on original content.
1:14.0	And Netflix seems to be further pushing its members to its ad tier, where the revenue per user is higher for most services, although not exactly for Netflix just yet.
1:23.3	Wall Street, no surprise. They liked the move. The stock price jumped. But will this hurt subscriber growth?
1:29.0	Remember, Netflix has lost a ton of value during its whole pursuit of Warner Brothers,
1:33.3	and it's really looking for the next growth narrative now that buying HBO Max isn't happening.
	...

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