Netflix said on Tuesday it is slashing its monthly subscription rates by up to 60 per cent in India, as it looks to woo viewers amid growing competition in the over-the-top (OTT) media service space in the country.
Users will now pay ₹149 a month from ₹199 earlier for Netflix’s Mobile and ₹199 instead of ₹499 for its basic plan for the same period. The standard plan will be charged at ₹499 per month and for the premium subscription, users will have to pay ₹649 for a month. These plans were earlier charged at ₹649 and ₹799, respectively.
“We are dropping our prices and it’s across the board, across our plans. This will include all our services – local and global. The biggest drop of 60 per cent is in the basic plan because we want the audiences to watch Netflix on a bigger screen or on any device, so that has gone down from ₹499 to ₹199,” Monika Shergill, Netflix vice president for content (India), told news agency.
Netflix was launched in India in 2016 and has been a premium offering with subscription plans starting from about ₹500. The company has changed pricing as well as introduced a mobile-only plan in the country since then.
“We have had great momentum since the time we came here (India), particularly over the last two years. When we came in, we were more of a service that brought global content,” Shergill was quoted as saying by news agency.
“But in the last two-three years that has been changing dramatically and we are expanding our slate… The whole focus is on reaching our larger set of audiences out there, it’s a very organic expansion strategy to go out there,” she said.
Netflix competes with Amazon Prime Video, Hotstar and even YouTube, along with other local players in the Indian market.
Amazon recently announced it will raise the price of the annual membership of its Prime programme, which includes content and other benefits, in India by 50 per cent to ₹1,499. Monthly and quarterly fees will also be raised.
Disney Hotstar is available for ₹899 a year onwards.