After months of teasing Indian audiences, Netflix has finally announced its first-ever mobile-only plan, just for the Indian market for Rs 199 per month.
This plan has been in the works for a while and now the video-streaming giant is hoping that more users will get a chance to try out its content and hopefully move to the other set of plans it is offering.
As highlighted by Netflix, the Rs 199 per month plan is its fourth for Indian consumers, which includes the standard, basic and premium versions, costing up to Rs 800 per month. This plan allows users to view content on either their mobile or tablet. You cannot stream content on multiple devices at the same time.
These are some of the constraints you’re getting with this plan.
The mobile-only plan will offer content in standard definition, which is 480 pixels in resolution. This is definitely low-quality compared to HD (720 pixels), Full-HD (1080 pixels) and UHD (1440 pixels) that we’ve become accustomed to with our screens on smartphones these days.
Netflix Mobile Only Plan: Everything You Need to Know
- Price: Rs 199 per month
- Quality: SD 480 pixels
- Download support: Yes, 100 titles
- No casting from mobile to TV allowed
So why is Netflix bringing this plan only for India? According to the company, Indian users are mostly watching its content on mobile than anywhere else in the world.
Even most of its signups of new users are happening from mobile devices.
Which is probably why, Netflix has been testing a Rs 250-per-month mobile plan over the past few months. The same plan’s cost has been revised to Rs 199 and officially announced on 24 July, Wednesday, to get more people to sign up.
Mobile-Only Plan: Advantage Netflix Over Rivals?
So how does the latest Netflix plan compare to its rivals?
We already know that Hotstar has multiple plans on offer starting from Rs 299 per month or you could go for the annual Rs 999 plan, which turns out to be much cheaper than the monthly plan.
Amazon Prime goes for Rs 129 per month, while the same offering costs you Rs 999 for one year. In addition to video and audio content at this price, you also get shopping discounts and access to exclusive deals and quick delivery as a Prime member on the Amazon ecosystem.
Now, with Netflix’s new plan, for Rs 199, which is its cheapest ever, you get content in 480pixels quality, confined to one mobile device, and it can’t cast/stream it on a bigger screen.
This ensures that the Netflix plan is cheaper than Hotstar’s monthly plan but costly in comparison to Amazon’s offering.
Netflix is hoping that after experiencing the mobile-only plan, people will be incentivised to spend more for its higher-quality content and features which they can’t access with the Rs 199 mobile-centric plan.
Netflix claims that it isn’t bringing this plan to increase its subscriber base, which has started stagnating in markets like the US and parts of Europe. But there’s no other way to see its latest announcement, which can also give Hotstar and Co. plenty to think about.
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