Netflix Surprises India With Rs 500/Month Plan; Social Media is Excited, But Censorship Worries Exist

Netflix has officially launched their services in India, along with 130 other countries. Co-founder and Chief Executive Reed Hastings announced it during his keynote at CES 2016, when he said, “Today you are witnessing the birth of a new global internet TV network.”

Earlier this week, we had reported that Netflix would debut in India before January 10th.

With this launch, Netflix is now available across every major country, except China. They are offering first month free as a welcome gift for all users.

With plans starting from Rs 500/month, Netflix has actually surprised everyone in India; and social media is abuzz with excitement.

On Reddit India, the top voted comment by shadowbannedguy1 says: “From the other thread:

I’m using this right now, it’s glorious as fuck! Uncensored!”

#NetflixIndia is actually trending on Twitter right now, as excited movie buffs are tweeting about this news. Rs 500/month entry plan is the most talked about feature of Netflix as of now.

Considering the fact that a normal movie in a multiplex costs somewhere around Rs 350-500, Netflix has actually made it easier for early adoption.

We tried using their services, and found the interface clean and dynamic.

Features:

There are three main plans as of now: Basic (Rs 500/month); Standard (Rs 650/month) and Premium (Rs 800/month)

While Standard offers the option of watching on 2 screens along with HD quality movies, Premium allows ultra-HD on 4 screens at a time. Basic plan will allow non-HD content on 1 screen.

As per Netflix’s own documentation, HD stream can consume 3GB of data per hour; while ultra-HD can consume 7GB per hour. Normal SD quality videos will consume around 300-700 MB per hour.

All the plans offer unlimited access to Netflix’s database, and first month free trail which will expire on February 6^th.

Getting Inside

Interestingly, adding your credit card is a mandatory requirement to start using their services. As I added my card, an amount of Rs 70 was deducted which was immediately reverted. As per Netflix, the billing shall start after February 7^th.

Once the payment process is done, Netflix will ask for the devices on which we plan to watch videos. Besides smart-TV, desktop/laptop and mobile/tablet, Netflix also offers PlayStation, Xbox and Apple TV as device options.

Besides offering vast collection of English TV series and movies, Netflix has also added Hindi movies in their collection.

While playing a movie, Netflix offers options of sub-titles as well.

In terms of categories, there are 12 options as of now:

Simultaneously, users can download Android and iOS app as well, and then access the content on their mobile devices. The movie will start from the same point where you left on any other device.

Major Concerns: Censorship & Internet Speed

As evident from various tweets and comments on sites like Reddit and Facebook, it seems that the major concern of Indian viewers is censorship and Internet speed.

Indian censor board is well known to chop off those scenes from movies which they deem inappropriate for us (recent example being kissing scene from Spectre). Those subscribing to Netflix’s plans in India are worried that the American shows can be censored on Netflix’s platform as well.

Internet speed is another major concern, broadband penetration is still very low in India and poor Internet connection may disrupt the joy of watching on-demand live streaming HD movies.

Freecharge Founder Kunal Shah, who recently became Chairman of IAMAI made an interesting observation after Netflix’s launch:

Have you subscribed to Netflix India? How is your experience? Do share by commenting right here!