Netflix's monthly subscription fee has been raised to $9.99, and CEO Reed Hastings wasted little time addressing the price hike in his latest quarterly letter to shareholders. According to the Netflix chief, it's all about content — and the money needed to secure it. Hastings says raising your monthly subscription will improve Netflix's ability "to acquire and offer high quality content, which is the number one member request." The $9.99 rate, which covers Netflix's most popular plan, marks the second time the streaming service has upped its cost since 2014. Existing members won't have to pay the new price until next October. If you're still on the old $7.99 plan and avoided the first subscription hike, you'll start being charged $9.99 in May.

Hastings also seems to be brushing off the loss of EPIX and its catalog of movies, suggesting that it hasn't really made a dent in the way customers use the service. "So far, we’ve seen no material reduction in US feature film viewing as we have so many other films for members to enjoy." Hastings reiterated that Netflix decided not to renew its agreement with EPIX since the movies included in the deal were non-exclusive, US-only, and "offered in windows even further behind other premium Pay TV outlets."

Small Empires: Pushing for universal on-demand delivery