The Hindu BusinessLine has all the deets! According to them, India has been ignored for far too long by international video streaming websites, given the high piracy rates and sad, crawling internet speeds, but we're about to get one more option.
The world's largest video streaming company, US-based Netflix will be launching in India soon. No word yet on exactly when, but they're expected to announce the India launch at the Consumer Electronic Show at Las Vegas next week.
Netflix offers its service is for $8.99 {about INR 600} a month in the US for watching HD-quality movies and TV shows on any two screens at the same time. However, Indian prices are expected to be much lower. Hells yeah! No more waiting to binge-watch the next season of Orange is the New Black, or House of Cards.
Netflix is borrowing $1 billion to fund its international expansion. It is also planning to enter South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan in 2016. Phew.
How are they going to overcome the slow internet, though? Apparently, Netflix could enter India through a partnership with a local telecom firm to take advantage of the 4G networks available. Hmm.
However, what Netflix can bring to India is not just more video, but better technology at affordable prices. The service is already popular in over 50 countries with around 62 million subscribers.
India currently has Bigflix from Reliance Communications, Movies from Google Play, Youtube’s Movie rentals, Eros Now and Spuul {which has partnered with Yash Raj Films to offer the studio’s movies on the website}. Singapore’s on-demand video provider Hooq also launched its services in India in July 2015. Hooq, a joint venture between SingTel, Warner Bros and Sony Pictures Television, lets a user stream and download movies and TV shows in India for INR 199 per month.
We're still waiting for Netflix, though.
Read the full report here.
Feature image courtesy: Digital Trends