Reportedly, Netflix is testing its cheapest mobile-only subscription plan in a few selected countries, including India. The company will be reducing the costs of its plans up to 50 per cent, i.e. the basic plan provided by Netflix will now cost $3.63 a month.
The cheapest Netflix plan in India costs Rs. 500 per month, which will now cost Rs. 250 per month, maintaining the quality of videos purely SD. The cheapest plan will work only on a single mobile device, and there is no option for HD video streaming.
Even though the prices have been reduced by 50 per cent, Netflix still is the most expensive streaming plan in India. One of Netflix’s competitor in India, Hotstar offers a yearly subscription of Rs 365, which is way cheaper than Netflix, offering Re. 1 per day streaming. On the other hand, Amazon Prime is available for Rs 1000 per year, Zee5 for Rs 1188 per year, and AltBalaji Rs 400 per year.
“We will be testing different options in select countries, where members can watch Netflix on their mobile device for a lower price, and subscribe in shorter increments of time. Not everyone will see these options, and we may never roll out these specific plans beyond the tests”, stated a Netflix spokesperson.
However, the original content has been tempting many Indians, who are already paying the ‘expensive’ monthly charges to access it, and Netflix itself has expressed earlier that the company is not facing any pricing issues in India. So people who are already using it will be the happiest, and the ones who wanted to get the subscription, but were not convinced to pay the costly fee every month, may also get their hands on it now.
But, currently, the cheaper plans are only being tested, and only a few Indians have got access to them. And, only if the tests go right, the company will make those changes permanent. Till then, we can only hope for the prices to lower down for every subscriber.
Yashica is a Software Engineer turned Content Writer, who loves to write on social causes and expertise in writing technical stuff. She loves to watch movies and explore new places. She believes that you need to live once before you die. So experimenting with her life and career choices, she is trying to live her life to the fullest.