Netflix to offer an affordable Rs 250 a month, mobile-only plan in India

Netflix currently offers three monthly plans in India, priced between Rs 500 and Rs 800.

Netflix Inc said on Wednesday it would roll out a lower-priced mobile-only plan in India, tapping into a price-sensitive market where data consumption on smartphones is surging.

The video streaming pioneer said in March that it was testing a Rs 250 ($3.63) monthly subscription for mobile devices in India, where data plans are among the cheapest in the world.

"We believe this plan ... will be an effective way to introduce a larger number of people in India to Netflix and to further expand our business in a market where Pay TV ARPU is low," the company said.

Netflix's new plan is aimed at battling cheaper offerings from rivals such as Amazon.com Inc's Prime Video and Hotstar, a video streaming platform owned by Walt Disney Co's India unit.

Netflix currently offers three monthly plans in India, priced between Rs 500 and Rs 800.

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In contrast, Hotstar, which also offers content from AT&T Inc's HBO and streams live sports, charges Rs 299 per month. Amazon bundles its video and music streaming services with its Prime membership.

Netflix's announcement was part of its quarterly results, in which it reported lower-than-expected subscriber additions.

India figures prominently in Netflix Chief Executive Officer Reed Hastings' global expansion plans. The company is investing heavily in creating blockbuster shows such as crime thriller "Sacred Games" and "Delhi Crime" with A-list Bollywood actors.

The second season of "Sacred Games" is set to release in August.

"We've been seeing nice steady increases in engagement with our Indian viewers that we think we can keep building on. Growth in that country is a marathon, so we're in it for the long haul," Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos said.

Shemaroo plans Bollywood streaming service, looks past Netflix model

India's media and entertainment market is estimated to expand to more than Rs 2 trillion by 2020 from Rs 1.5 trillion in 2017.

Shemaroo Entertainment Ltd has transitioned from renting DVDs to streaming movies online -- while the business model move may sound familiar, the company doesn’t want to be pigeonholed as an Indian  Netflix  Inc.
Shemaroo holds the rights to 3,500, mostly older Bollywood films, through which it earns TV licensing fees as well as advertising revenue from nearly 40 YouTube channels. While the Mumbai-based company is planning to start its own streaming application in the next six-to-nine months, throwing it into competition with Netflix and at least six other local and international rivals, it doesn’t see this as its endgame.


“Given the opportunities that exist in the market, we want to grow our revenue fivefold in five years,” Hiren Gada, the company’s chief executive officer, said in an interview in Mumbai. “The best way to play the digital boom is to offer services on all platforms in all forms.”

Shemaroo aims to grow its movie catalogue 3 to 5 per cent every year, and is looking to license out its library to other online platforms. While Gada said the company may produce “some content,” it sees controlled spending on content and online platform maintenance as a key difference between its planned app and Netflix.


India’s media and entertainment market is estimated to expand to more than Rs 2 trillion ($30 billion) by 2020 from Rs 1.5 trillion in 2017, buoyed by robust growth in digital formats, according to a report by Ernst & Young LLP in March. With its population of about 1.3 billion, India is among the most important markets for Netflix, which had 5 million subscribers as of December 31. The country’s online media boom has also drawn Amazon.com Inc and Viacom Inc, among others.

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