MUMBAI: Netflix has raised the rates of unlimited streaming and DVDs by 60 per cent per month, it is understood. The price-hike was accompanied by the introduction of some new DVD-only plans.

Netflix had been offering unlimited streaming and unlimited DVDs, one DVD out at a time for $9.99 per month, but on Tuesday it has been raised to $15.98 per month. It is said that Netflix arrived at the price by splitting the offering. Subscribers now can get unlimited streaming only for $7.99 and unlimited DVDs only, one at a time, also for $7.99. The company also said it will offer a two-out-at-a-time DVD only option for $11.99.

Despite the price hike of the combination offering of streaming and DVDs, Netflix was stressing the lower pricing for the DVD-only subscriptions. "By offering our lowest prices ever, we hope to provide great value to our current and future DVDs by mail members,"a Netflix executive has been quoted as having said.

Netflix has been spending hundreds of millions of dollars lately to acquire films and TV shows for streaming. And with Hulu, Amazon.com and others in the bidding mix, streaming rights have the potential to climb higher fairly rapidly.