Streaming giant Netflix revealed its long-awaited mobile-only subscription plan for India on Wednesday.
The plan, which will be available imminently, will cost INR199 ($2.88) per month and will be available on one mobile or tablet screen, per user, in standard definition. While downloads will be supported, casting to televisions will not.
Speaking at a press event in New Delhi, Ajay Arora, director, product innovation at Netflix, said that the service’s India subscribers watch more on their mobiles compared to anywhere else globally. At the moment there are no plans to introduce the mobile-only tariff in other markets.
The number of smartphone users in India is currently 373 million, a number that is expected to increase to 442 million by 2022, according to research firm Statista.
In an extremely price sensitive market, the mobile-only plan is intended to lift Netflix above its current estimated 2 million Indian subscribers. The streamer’s main competition is from Disney’s Hotstar and Amazon Prime Video, where annual subscriptions are around $14. Hotstar has the advantage of live-streaming cricket, India’s most popular sport.
Netflix is aiming to create its own niche by investing heavily in local original programming. Season two of popular series “Sacred Games” begins airing Aug. 15.
Other Netflix subscriptions in India are priced monthly at $7.23, $9.40 and $11.57.