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Netflix is Testing Cheaper Mobile-only Subscription Plans in Selected Countries

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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.

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Image Source: fortune

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.

Hulu Updates Per Month Subscription Prices Soon After Netflix’s Price Hikes

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The American entertainment company, Hulu, has announced that it is going to cut down the prices for the base subscription plan of its monthly streaming service. The announcement has just come after a week of its rival company Netflix increased the prices for all of its subscription plans.

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Hulu, which is an ad-supported streaming service, has reduced the cost of its base plan, to $5.99 per month, down from the current cost, i.e. $7.99. Previously, for the purpose of promotion of its internet streaming service, the company was offering the same plan for this same price, and we must say that it was a brilliant strategy to drag more consumers towards. Now again, when one of the top streaming services, Netflix, has increased its prices, Hulu might take the advantage from it, by reducing the prices.

Netflix last week escalated the prices of all its subscription plans, starting with its most popular HD streaming plan, which is now $13 per month. Even having owned one of the prime streaming services worldwide, the company shared a fell just under 1 per cent, soon after the price increase on Wednesday.

Though Hulu is an ad-based service, having subscribers half of the Netflix’s, the prices it is offering to its customers is making them abandon cable and satellite services in favour of streaming.

Last year, the company reported that it had over 25 million subscribers, and it was a good number as, the number of subscribers had increased by 48 per cent, as compared to the number of users it had in 2017.

Although the company is lowering the prices of the base plan of the streaming service, it at the same time, is also hiking prices across its other subscription tiers. It has announced to is boost the prices of Hulu Live TV, a cable-TV-like a package, by $5 more per month at $44.99. Why such wide gap between the two? Hulu explained that the Hulu Live TV is offering more channels and services, including the full on-demand product, as compared to its internet streaming service.

Still, to overcome the gap, Hulu is lowering its fees for the live TV service’s optional add-ons, including the DVR and expanded multiscreen viewing packages. Now the company will offer the two at a price $9.99 per month.

For the new subscribers the new prices will take effect from February 26, and the older consumers will automatically be shifted to the new subscription prices in their next billing cycle after February 26.

Netflix Rising Prices for its US Subscribers

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The popular streaming service Netflix, on Tuesday, announced that it is going to raise the subscription fees for its new users, starting from the 1st February 20019, and will be doing the same for its existing subscribers after three months. The price rise will be between 13 to 18 per cent of the present plans, which is the highest, in more than two decades of its functioning.

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Image Source: worldtvpc.com

Netflix’s cheapest monthly subscription plan is of $7.99, which now will be $8.99, and the most popular plan of Netflix, streaming HD on two different devices, currently costs $10.99 for a month’s subscription, will be raised to $12.99. Also, the four devices plan, the premium plan for 4K streaming, will be raised from $13.99 to $15.99 per month.

The reason Netflix gave for the rise in the prices is that it has been investing a lot in its original series’. The hike in the subscription plans will help it financially to focus more on the original programming.

“We change pricing from time to time as we continue investing in great entertainment and improving the overall Netflix experience,” a representative at Netflix, said.

Currently, more than 58 million people are subscribed to Netflix in the US only, and the last hike it had put on the subscription fee was in 2017. But this time the price rise is way higher, that may attract some criticism. Also, the raised cost may affect Netflix’s new subscribers, and it may face a number of cancellation from its existing users.

In 2011, the company had divided its movie rental service, leading to two subsequent services, one had the movie streaming over the internet, and the other was the DVDs in the mail service. This had caused a lot of criticism, and Netflix lost over 80,000 subscribers at once. At the same time, Netflix’s stock price also had dropped 77 per cent in just four months.

“The Black Mirror”, “Orange Is The New Black”, “Stranger Things”, and now “BirdBox”, Netflix has been providing with unique quality content over the years, and for keeping up with the competition, the company is pushing its limits. Raising the prices will certainly work well for Netflix, but are the users ready to pay that much?

AT&T’s Ready to Launch its Three Tier Streaming SVOD Service

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Video streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime has replaced old traditional television, and now AT&T is also set to launch its new streaming video service by the end of this year, that will feature original movies and television series from Warner Bros., Turner and HBO. The tech giant is ready to transform into an entertainment giant with its new upcoming subscription video-on-demand service and has made some good strategies to achieve that.

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image Source: 680news.com

The streaming service will provide a three-tier subscription, starting with an “entry-level” subscription at the lowest monthly charges, that will accentuate on movies, and the user will get to watch the films from WarnerMedia’s catalogue with this subscription. The second one will endorse the “premium” subscription package, and will include the WarnerMedia TV series and “blockbuster movies”. The third tier is on the expensive side and will provide the user with all the first and second tier subscription services, plus it will offer an access to “extensive library of WarnerMedia and licensed content.”

AT&T had been preparing for the big launch of its video streaming platform, and the news had been confirmed by many of AT&T’s statements in the past. As AT&T has acquired HBO, it will emphasise more on promoting and streaming the content from HBO. Also, soon after its acquisition of TimeWarner, AT&T also established a WarnerMedia entity, to focus on WarnerMedia content specifically.

The tech giant is focused on more consumer engagement, and its goal is to have its share of profits from the consumers who have been spending $150 a month on entertainment and cable services. John Stankey, head of AT&T’s WarnerMedia unit said, “At the end of the day, that engagement is good for all of AT&T’s business.”

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said, “We have some of the world’s best content and 370 million direct-to-consumer relationships across mobility, video, broadband and our digital properties. That exceptional combination enables us to deliver a broad spectrum of entertainment experiences, from premium video to skinnier over-the-top and mobile-centric bundles of live content, and a subscription video-on-demand product to launch late next year. And with Xander, our advertising business, we’re using insights from our customers.”

Alongside AT&T, Disney is also planning to start its standalone streaming service, by the fall next year. And like these two companies, there are many other companies including Walmart that are willing to step into the same business. Netflix and Amazon have already made their separate place in the same, and with the combination streaming service that AT&T is about to start, the consumer will be able to get more discount on such service, which can shift their attention from Netflix and Amazon Prime to AT&T’s streaming network.