Earlier this week, Netflix officially announced that it is going to launch a mobile-only plan. It will be the cheapest plan the streaming platform offers, which certainly makes sense since it has plenty of limitations tied to it. The company also confirmed the plan will launch in India first, and unfortunately there’s no word on when, or even if, this mobile-only plan will ever expand beyond those shores.
Netflix is losing a lot recently. The company recently confirmed that it was not only losing beloved third-party content like Friends to other streaming services, but also subscribers. Which, at least in a moment of brilliant honesty, the company says probably has something to do with recent price hikes. And it probably does! The last price hike made a lot of people question the worthiness of Netflix on their monthly streaming slate, mostly because there are so many options out there and many of them aren’t cheap by themselves.
So Netflix is hoping to shake things up, gain more subscribers, and a mobile-only plan in India may do just that.
And I can’t help but wonder if a plan like that would work like gangbusters in other markets, too. I don’t think there’s any doubt that Netflix is on a bit of shaky ground these days, especially as other networks start taking their own shows back, leaving Netflix to rely more and more on its own original content. I’ve spoken to many people about this, and while many of them have watched more than a few of Netflix’s originals over the months and years, it’s usually the third-party content that keeps them coming back.
Which is why losing those shows and movies, especially with Disney+ on the way and WarnerMedia gobbling up its own content, has been a big blow for Netflix. At least to some. For me Netflix is still a ridiculously good bargain and I use the service every single day. I don’t see that changing anytime soon, either. (I’ve already watched Friends more than enough, and I never got into The Office, so I’m good there.)
But if Netflix could offer a mobile-only option, and significantly drop the price, would that get people to come back? There is obviously plenty of content on Netflix, third-party or not, and watching it on a phone or tablet is already easy enough. But a mobile-only option could be pretty great for some potential subscribers, or even those who might be considering ditching the service because of the price and maybe they don’t watch it all that much on the TV anymore.
For some, though, Netflix is good background noise. It’s just been a service they’ve stayed subscribed to because they can throw a show on they’ve seen before, laugh when it catches their attention, and keep doing other things in the house at the same time. That’s certainly still possible playing on a tablet, but doesn’t really have the same effect.
So, that’s what I want to know. How do you feel about Netflix these days? Would you be interested in a mobile-only plan if the streaming platform brought it to your neck of the woods? Let me know!