Netflix cuts prices in India; check out new rates

Streaming giant Netflix announced on Monday that it will cut prices across all its plans. Its prices now start from Rs 149, instead of Rs 199. This price cut comes amid stiff competition from other streaming platforms that offer their plans for a significantly lower amount than Netflix. The 25 per cent price cut across its four plans in India is the second time the streaming giant has slashed prices in the country. Netflix launched its cheapest plan for India at Rs 199 per month in July 2019, which industry experts said led to attracting subscribers on the streaming platform.

The cheapest plan Netflix was for mobile-and-tablet-only viewing for Rs 199, which has been slashed to Rs 149. The basic plan, which can be viewed across mobile phone, tablet, computer and TV, has been slashed to Rs 199 per month from the earlier Rs 499.

The standard plan that can be watched across all the four kinds of devices but has better video quality and 1080p resolution is now available for Rs 499 instead of the earlier Rs 649 per month. The top tier plan or the premium which is also available across the four kinds of devices but has the best video quality with 4K + HDR video quality is now available for Rs 649 per month instead of Rs 799.

The new plans come into effect from December 14.

It must be mentioned here that only people who live with the user of a plan can access the account. In the premium plan, four people can watch from one account at the same time, while two people can watch with the standard plan and only one person at a time can watch with the basic and mobile plans.

“So whether you're watching with your family or just on your own, in the mood for a superhero tale (Minnal Murali), genre-bending series (Yeh Kaali Kaali Ankhein), dramedy (Decoupled), family drama (Finding Anamika), thriller (Looop Lapeta) or comedy special (Kapil Sharma), along with films and series from across the world, there's something for everyone,” it stated. The price cut also comes as the American streaming giant has been announcing a host of new titles, international and Indian, such as Red Notice, The Harder They Fall, and The Princess Switch, Dhamaka and Meenakshi Sundareshwar. R Madhavan and Surveen Chawla-starrer Decoupled is scheduled to be released in December.

Meanwhile, competition like Disney+ Hotstar offers their premium plan at Rs 1,499 annually. Amazon Prime Video membership is priced at Rs 1,499 annually.

The price cut comes even as arch rival Amazon Prime has increased its annual plan from Rs 999 to Rs 1,499. The gap is narrowing as the most basic Netflix mobile-only plan now works out to about Rs 1,800 a year. But Amazon Prime offers other add-on features such as free delivery and a music service. “The average pricing for OTT apps in the country today for annualised plans in terms of total subscriber revenue/number of subscribers is around Rs 500. Netflix’s pricing even in the basic plan is still almost three times that at Rs 1,800,” says Elara Capital SVP and research analyst Karan Taurani.

Netflix has around 36% market share in India’s SVOD market as it is the most dominant player in the pure-play video OTT service, says Taurani. “Netflix has almost 214 million paid subscribers – larger portion of this is from developed nations which are largely penetrated. Hence, India offers a big opportunity for Netflix if they were to scale up the subscriber base. India is a big market opportunity with ample penetration opportunity in the tier 2 and tier 3 towns. With increased smartphone users and a cheaper data price, this is indeed a market which will help scale up Netflix subscriber base over the medium-to-long term,” he said.

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