In the latest chapter of Netflix and its ongoing squabbles with everyone else in the known universe, it’s not impossible to sign up directly for the streaming service within the iPhone app, and new subscribers must now sign up directly through the Netflix website.
Netflix ended the ability to subscribe from within its iOS app in 2018. The move was made to avoid Apple’s in-app subscription commission of 30 percent, which reduces to 15 percent after a subscriber pays for a year.
According to The Verge, Netflix has discontinued support for grandfathered accounts that still use the in-app subscription payment option. While new users haven’t been able to use the method since its removal in 2018, anyone who didn’t change their subscription or end it since was still paying from their Apple payment method.
A number of users complained that Netflix had failed to alert them to this change via email, which has led to additional frustration.
Subscribers who held onto the old payment method could keep paying the old $9.99 price for ad-free viewing. Those users must now pay $6.99 for ad-filled content, $15.49 for HD ad-free content, or $22.99 for the 4K tier.
Netflix has exercised a series of aggressive new business practices in recent years, including limiting password sharing, raising prices multiple times, and charging more than services that offer 4K content.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.
Via AppleInsider and The Verge