Now, Netflix Partners Vi To Bundle Subscription With Prepaid Plans

A little under a year after partnering with telecom operator Reliance Jio, OTT streaming platform Netflix has partnered with another telecom major, Vodafone Idea (Vi). Under the partnership, Vi has started offering prepaid tariff plans bundled with a subscription for Netflix.

The telecom provider is offering three prepaid plans for INR 998 for 70 days, INR 1,099 for 70 days, and INR 1,399 for 84 days, with Netflix’s monthly ‘basic’ subscription of INR 199. The INR 1,099 pack is only available in Gujarat and Mumbai, while the other two are available pan-India.

Further, users with existing Netflix subscriptions can also link their accounts with the plans. The telco said that it will soon be bundling Netflix with its postpaid plans as well. 

The partnership is expected to be a win-win for both the parties. While it may help Vi, which has been losing subscribers, shore up its user base, it is expected to help Netflix further penetrate the OTT market in the country. 

The US-based streaming platform’s first experiment with a partnership with a telco for prepaid plans in India was with Jio in August 2023. Under that partnership, Jio launched two prepaid plans priced at INR 1,099 (2GB/day) and INR 1,499 (3GB/day) with a validity of 84 days. The move allows Netflix to tap Jio’s subscriber base of 482 Mn. 

The OTT platform competes with the likes of Amazon Prime, SonyLiv, and Zee5. The competition is expected to deepen soon as two other majors in the OTT space – JioCinema and Disney+ Hotstar – have joined forces. 

Meanwhile, Netflix has been strategically cutting subscription prices, cracking down on password sharing, and expanding its library in India over the past few years. As a result, the company’s India arm was able to register a 75% year-on-year (YoY) increase in profit to INR 35 Cr in its last disclosed financial results for the financial year 2022-23 (FY23).