Netflix is looking to expand their 4K viewing offerings but it’s not going to come solely out of their own pockets. After launching the most recent season of House of Cards in 4K, Netflix will now be charging a premium to access 4K content. The popular TV and movie streaming site will now require a $11.99 premium subscription.

Currently, Netflix’s 4K library is decidedly lacking when compared to its standard library, though that shouldn’t surprise anyone. In addition to the second season of House of Cards, Breaking Bad, The Blacklist, and the two Ghostbusters movies make up the current library of 4K video on Netflix so your extra $3 doesn’t get you much for them yet.

However, as an added bonus for people upgrading to the $11.99 subscription level, Netflix is allowing four concurrent streams per account. Users who share with friends and family know that Netflix currently caps you at 2 active streams per account at the standard $8.99 level.

There are a couple of technological caveats to the new 4K plan. First, requires 25 MBPS download speed in order to stream 4K video. Secondly, if you want to get 4K Netflix on your TV, it has to be a very new model. Your TV needs to have an onboard H.265/HEVC decoder in order to playback the video.

Netflix’s official position is that the cost of acquiring and streaming 4K video is higher than standard 1080p high-definition video so the extra $3 per month helps offset the added costs. Coincidentally, Netflix announced this on the same day that they revealed that speeds on Verizon were up 31% after entering the peering deal. I’m not suggesting that there’s a causative connection but would it surprise you if Netflix starts to edge prices higher to pay for their streaming fast lanes?

Source: Daily Tech