Netflix is a famous streaming service that offers a wide variety of award-winning TV shows, movies, documentaries, to millions of internet-connected users around the world. The over-the-top content platform and Production Company headquartered in Los Gatos, California has announced a new plan for sub-Saharan African countries including Nigeria. However this new plan is a mobile-only plan and is by far the cheapest plan the streaming giant offers in the Sub-Saharan region.
Prior to this major announcement, Netflix offered three plans in Nigeria – a Basic Plan at (N2,900) $7/month, a Standard Plan priced at (N3,600) $9/month and a Premium Plan priced at (N4,400)$11. Each of this plans has its own peculiarities, talking about resolution quality and allowed users. The new mobile plan is expected to cost about (N1200) $3/month, this is about the same price as the cost of the cheapest monthly data plans offered by mobile network operators. However this Mobile-only Plan works only on phones and tablets and the resolution is capped at 480p. This plan would allow users enjoy the Play Partial Download feature, a feature that allows users to watch a movie before download is completed.
Netflix has continued to take more of an active role as producer and distributor for films and TV series across the world and to that end, offers a variety of Netflix Original content through its online library. The move to launching mobile-only packages is a no brainer. Global mobile internet traffic has been on the up. According to Broadband Research, mobile internet usage makes up about 56% (as of February 2021) of internet traffic, up from 52% in 2020. In Africa, the vast majority of people consume content over the internet on a smartphone or a tablet. In July 2020, Netflix became the largest entertainment/media company by market capitalization and in 2021, Netflix was ranked as the 8th most trusted brand globally by Morning Consult.
In 2019, when wearing masks wasn’t a norm and the presence of a bottle of sanitizer in stores was an oddity, Netflix launched its first-ever mobile-only plan in India, the reason for this launch was due to the fact that India is a booming, but price-sensitive digital and mobile market. Ever since this decision in India, many expected the streaming giant to test lower-priced plans in more international markets amidst few local competition and a push to boost its subscriber reach. In month of October the same year, Netflix launched a similar plan in Malaysia at $4. Again this decision was reached to attract price-sensitive customers in locales where its regular offerings were already available. Even with the price slash plans looming, many still consider Netflix expensive compared to other similar online platform
Although there is no specific date for when Netflix’s mobile-only plan would kick start However, it’s very exciting to know that Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa and other Sub-Saharan markets were chosen to be part of this cost saving strategy.
Olagoke Ajibola is a creative writer and content producer with an eye for details and excellence. He has a demonstrated history of telling stories for TV, Film and Online. Aside from being fascinated by the power of imagination, his other interest are travel, sport, reading and meeting people.
