One of the biggest video streaming services in the world, Netflix, has launched a mobile-only R49/month plan for South Africans, on Tuesday.
According to Tech Central, this mobile plan will be available with immediate effect. This comes after the company tested two mobile plans in South Africa and other African countries to see if subscribers would use them.
Netflix mobile plan: what you need to know
This new plan will sit along with the basic, standard, and premium plan. The significance of it is that it is made for tablets and smartphones, and you are allowed only one stream on the plan in standard definition (520p resolution).
Streaming under multiple devices is not permitted on the plan. You can still have up to five profiles on the plan but you can only stream on one device at a time.
According to News24, consumers who subscribe to the mobile plan will have the same access to the whole Netflix catalogue available in Africa.
“After several months of testing, we’re excited to launch a new mobile plan in South Africa at R49 per month. This plan will make it even easier for anyone with a smartphone to enjoy Netflix,” said a Netflix spokesperson in a statement.
The partial download feature
On Monday 28 June 2021, the streaming app launched another cool feature that lets you play partially downloaded videos. You can now watch your show even if you had a bad internet connection and couldn’t complete your download.
This feature is available only on Android smartphones and tablets with an operating system of 7,64 or more, according to Variety. The feature is yet to be tested on iOS.
When the feature was tested last year, the streaming company found that 35 % of its new users had used it and 24 % of its existing users took advantage of this new feature.
“While there were no changes in downloading behaviour or overall streaming, we’re focused on what we can do today to make it even easier to watch that nearly downloaded episode of your favourite show or a movie for those members who have unreliable WiFi,” Netflix said.