Last summer, Netflix launched a mobile-only subscription plan which meant users could pay the equivalent of $2.99 a month to stream films and shows to – you guessed it – their mobile device only. India was the first country to receive the plan, launching to its 478 million smartphone users. Malaysia then got it in October (except costing $4 instead, for some reason).
Despite it being a somewhat limited service, it seems it’s been successful and Netflix are now hoping to debut the plan in other countries, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The outlet states that they’ll be looking to test their mobile-only plan in additional markets with the possibility of it being even lower in price.
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings recently spoke at a conference in Delhi in which he laid out a $400 million spending plan on local content for 2019 and 2020. While he didn’t say which countries would be getting the mobile-only subscription, he did compare India’s TV services to that of the US, which hints at it becoming available for American viewers (let’s face it, it’d be silly of them to not offer it to one of the biggest watchers of TV in the world).
If we have amazing content from around the world, people are willing to pay for that…In the U.S., cable television costs about $75. Here [in India] it’s about $3-$5. In the U.S., people pay $50 for mobile phone access. Pricing is very low here, and the market is very large. That’s why our 199 rupees a month [mobile-only] pricing is very competitive.
Of course, Netflix has made additional attempts to appeal to India’s market as well, such as offering discount plans for the mobile-only service (basic, standard and premium), and according to a spokesperson, there were roughly one million subscribers in India at the beginning of 2019 with those numbers expecting to double by the end of 2020.
Going off that, it does sound like the new plan may have had an impact on Netflix‘s market share in India, and the concept of having a cheaper streaming service for smartphones and tablets certainly seems like a good idea.