It is 5 p.m. and already dark outside. You run upstairs to your room to escape the gloominess of the winter months. So, you hop into bed, grab the remote, and turn on the TV. You are ready to binge-watch one of your favorite shows, but first, you must pick a program to watch it on.

Currently, there are many different streaming services to choose from. Your options include Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus, HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video, and more. Today, you choose to open Netflix.

The red and black screens pop up with sound effects, and it gives you a warning that the prices for your plan are rising. Just a few years ago, when Netflix came out, it only cost $8 for the basic plan, but now you are paying $9.

Netflix is capitalizing on the fact that more people are watching it because of the quarantine, so they figure inflating the prices will force people to pay. With a higher demand, comes a higher price. This has always been a business tactic. However, does Netflix need to raise their prices?

Sure, it is only a dollar more per month, but that equates to $12 more a year. Some families are still paying for cable, which is expensive in and of itself. Streaming different movies and shows can even be free by using other websites, and now Netflix is not the main streaming service.

Disney Plus is out there too with marketing deals with Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and National Geographic. Although they are potentially targeted to a younger audience, you don’t think now would be the time for them to higher their prices since Netflix is mostly known for its teen-targeted binge-worthy shows and occasional cheesy teen-movie series.

However, Netflix hiring their prices could be good for the company, and it allows them to have more money to start production on new seasons of different popular shows. Especially after this quarantine season, when they can record more movies and TV shows that were put on hold because of COVID-19. Also, if they lost any viewers who switched to Disney Plus, raising prices could potentially help make up for that lost money.

Back on Netflix, you dismiss the warning and search up your favorite show, The Office, and you notice that all nine seasons have been taken down. The licensing agreement has ended, and now you can no longer watch it all over again on Netflix for the fifth time.

This is not the only show to leave Netflix at the end of 2020. Shows and movies like Gossip Girl, The Notebook, Back to the Future Series, and much more are leaving at the end of the month. These staples were some of the main reasons people had Netflix in the first place, and some of the new shows and movies on Netflix might not be for them.

What does the future hold? Other classics like Gilmore Girls, Friends, and Criminal Minds might leave Netflix too. As viewers, are we supposed to follow the show to a different streaming service? Why could they not just keep it on Netflix?

Questions will be left unanswered, but the reasons for these changes are simply licensing agreements with the show. Could Netflix have tried to renew the licensing agreements with these shows? We may never know.

The changes to Netflix over the past few months have created a new audience. There is no doubt that Netflix gives some of these older shows more views and a brand new generation to see them.

As for the future, will Netflix bring back any older shows so a younger audience can view them? Netflix could potentially be marketing to a younger generation now that is less focused on the older and nostalgic shows.

Different reboots are in the making for some early 2000s favorites, so only time will tell what that means for these older shows. Netflix will probably not “die” because of these changes, but it could become less popular. Were the marketing moves that Netflix made right for its future?