Netflix trials mobile plan in India
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Rebecca Hawkes
| 25 March 2019

US streaming giant Netflix is trialling a mobile-only subscription plan in India costing half that of its basic tier.

Priced at INR250 (US$3.60) a month, the mobile-only plan allows subscribers to watch standard definition (SD) content on a single mobile phone or tablet. It compares with Netflix’ basic pack at INR500, the standard HD plan priced at INR650 and the ultra HD pack costing INR800.

The move comes after the company stated it would look at lower pricing models for the Indian market after its third quarter results last in 2018.

“Now we’ll experiment with other pricing models, not only for India but around the world, that allows us to broaden access by providing a pricing tier that sits below our current lowest tier. We’ll see how that does in terms of being able to accelerate our growth and get more access,” Netflix chief product office Greg Peters told analysts during a Q3 results conference call.

In November 2018, Netflix launched a similar half-price mobile plan in Malaysia.

“We will be testing different options in select countries, where members can, for example, watch Netflix on their mobile device for a lower price and subscribe in shorter increments of time,”Netflix said in a statement. “Not everyone will see these options and we may never roll out these specific plans beyond the tests," the video-on-demand (VOD) company added.)

Netflix still remains more expensive in India than rivals Hotstar and Amazon Prime Video, which offer subscriptions for INR199 and INR129 per month respectively.