Struggling To Win Subscribers, Netflix Cuts Prices in India

Nearly six years after Netflix launched its service in India, the global streaming giant is still struggling to find customers willing to pay for what is already its cheapest subscription globally. From a report: The American firm on Tuesday further lowered the subscription price in India, cutting each monthly subscription tier's cost by at least 18% and up to 60.1%. The Netflix Basic plan, which permits streaming on any device but caps the resolution at 480p, now costs 199 Indian rupees ($2.6) in India, down from 499 Indian rupees ($6.6). Netflix Standard, which improves the video resolution to HD (720p) and permits two simultaneous views, now costs 499 Indian rupees, down from 649 Indian rupees ($8.5). Netflix Premium, which offers four simultaneous views and streams in UltraHD (4K) video quality, now costs 649 Indian rupees, down from â799 ($10.5).

We lost the streaming war?

[jellomizer]

Or did we win the streaming war?

For the longest time, we wanted to pick which Cable TV Channels we wanted to watch, and not pay for the channels we didn't care about.

Netflix was (and kinda still is) King of streaming, it success was around the fact it was able to attract studios to allow Netflix to stream their content. Sure DRM is bad and all, however Netflix DRM made it attractive enough for the studios agree to use Netflix for streaming. So it had a good selection of material that we could stream, be les

Re:We lost the streaming war?

[nagora]

Content providers should not be allowed to own the companies that distribute that content. Siloed monopolies are still monopolies, especially since the "free market" ensures that the market is controlled by fewer and fewer players over time.

Re:

[stanjo74]

Tesla car manufacturer should not be allowed to own the outlets selling Teslas. I want to be able to buy a Tesla from the Ford dealership which I frequent.

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[Bethany_Saint]

I don't like the comparison. Tesla makes a physical product. Netflix and the various streaming services make digital content. I'm fine with physical products being sold solely by the manufacturer as there is limited supply and the market can theoretically "sort it out". With digital content not so much.

For TV and movie streaming I'd prefer a Spotify style distribution. I pay a monthly fee and can stream as many shows from any network/studio as I want. I don't pay per show, per network, per studio, or any bu

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[uncqual]

What content provider is a monopoly except over the small set of material that they produce/buy/own?

If you don't like the terms under which Game of Thrones was/is distributed by its content producer, you are completely free to select another series from another provider to waste your time viewing.

If you don't think a content creator/distributor is providing adequate value for your money, just cancel. If enough people agree with you, the content creator/distributor will either go out of business or reduce th

Re:

[nagora]

What content provider is a monopoly except over the small set of material that they produce/buy/own?

That's the issue - the "free market" ensures that that becomes more and more of a problem over time - look at Disney for the prime example, how many former competitors do they own now? This is a characteristic of unregulated markets that can be observed back into the mediaeval period and is basically a mathematically inescapable consequence of the role luck plays in any market. And once luck creates an imbalance, that snowballs over time if you let it.

Regardless of all that, the current situation for televi

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[lp_bugman]

"we actually get more content, however we are now paying a lot more for streaming services." In many cases this is not correct. Let me explain my POV. It is much better for studios to have their own channel, I can vote with my $$$ when they put shows I'm interested in their platform and in the same way cancel the service when they stop having things I have interest in watching. This is the case with Paramount+. I'm paying for it to watch ST Discovery and Picard, that's it, As I have done for the last 3 yea

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[uncqual]

Gasp! The free market actually works!

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[jellomizer]

Sure it works, it doesn't mean that it is perfect.
I can use my Lawn Tractor and drive it to the grocery store, the doctors office, and most of all the services that I need to survive in today's society. However I may still be better off if I had a car or a truck.

Free market invisible hand of capitalism does indeed work, however it is a very clumsy it is like watching a toddler eat spaghetti. The market will balance over time, successful enough ideas will generally be used, while bad ideas and scams will

Netflix Premium 5% of median wage.

[splutty]

Premium was 5% of the median wage in India. So I'm really not surprised people didn't line up for that deal.

I'm sure there are still a good amount of people that have it, purely due to the absolute number of people living there, but it's unrealistic to expect most people to pay those amounts.

(Not even going into the amount of piracy that's prevalent..)

Stop binge model on new releases.

[Anonymous Coward]

If you dole them out one episode a week, they will have no choice but to stay. Also cut down on number of simultaneous connections per account, will force more to subscribe.

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[stanjo74]

Maybe, maybe not.
There is value in the binge format, as it creates more hype and generates revenue elsewhere in the form of interviews, merchandise, web-clicks, etc. I don't have the data on this, but is seems that hype makes a lot of money in our consumer society.

Which format does the audience prefer - binge-watching or episode-per-week? It's reasonable to say that those who are now used to binge-watching will absolutely hate being spoon-fed and may stop following the show. Alternatively, they will just w

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[backslashdot]

The median wage of 1.3 billion people. What is the median of say the top 25% which is 325 million people?

VPN to India

[flyingfsck]

Finally there is a use for a VPN to India. Im sure some enterprising gentleman in India will step up and address the opportunity.

Re: VPN to India

[shm]

Off the top of my head, Windscribe has servers based in India. How will you pay though? I heard Netflix checks the location of the credit card issuing bank.

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[arglebargle_xiv]

Was just going to mention that, the median wage in India is around USD 200 a month. That means that around 700 million people have to survive on under $200 a month. That's just under seven dollars a day. Now imagine trying to pay for Netflix from that after living expensive - which are typically more than seven dollars a day - have been deducted.

So you just spent 6 hours

[oldgraybeard]

streaming NetFlix. And now? wow, streaming video kinda has the same value as one of those NFT thingys.

VPN?

[coryhamma]

So what I hear you saying is that if we get a VPN that terminates in India, we can get a serious discount on Netflix?

Re:

[Penguinoflight]

Yeah, if you enjoy Bollywood content that's probably a solid strategy.

Is it really cost?

[dark.nebulae]

For me, I will join a service for compelling content, not just because it is cheap.

So I would question whether Netflix has compelling content in India first.

big mac index

[bugs2squash]

At Purchasing Power Parity the per capita income in India is 1/10th that in the USA. That makes this subscription way more expensive than the equivalent USA price I think. Given that there may be less local language content (I don't know for sure) and the limited resolution at the low tier subscription it doesn't seem like great value to me.

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[bn-7bc]

No if i remember the deffinition right HD is 720p/i full hd is 1080p/i unless that has changed

Reverse Netflix Adaptations

[suss]

They probably don't want to watch "Reverse Netflix Adaptations" with their historical figures swapped with white people and music at a non-defeaning volume...