Netflix launches StreamFest free weekend in India

In its latest attempts to attract users in India, Netflix will offer prospective users a free weekend at the beginning of December.

The company, calling the weekend of December 5-6 ‘StreamFest, will allow non-subscribers access to its entire catalogue – ranging from acquired content to original series and movies. All users need to hand over is a name, email address or phone number and password.

Across the weekend, Indian users will also have unrestricted access to the streamer in terms of platform. Trial users will be able to watch content across mobile, CTV and games console apps, however they will face restrictions of only one stream in SD.

While it declined to put forward numbers, Netflix also said that there would be a cap on how many people will have access to the StreamFest weekend – perhaps attempting to create an added incentive of scarcity.

This will be the latest promotion from Netflix in India in an attempt to properly break into the nation, following a huge cut-price offer earlier this year. The company ended 2019 with 2,000,000 Indian subscribers, but the massive population is considered something of a golden goose for US players that are looking to ramp up their subscriber numbers in an increasingly crowded market.

Netflix is also looking to compete with Disney+ Hotstar, which has exclusive streaming rights to the coveted Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament. The recently wrapped-up 2020 iteration saw viewing figures up 24% year-over-year to reach a cumulative total of 383 billion minutes watched across linear and OTT.

Media Partners Asia has estimated that Disney+ Hotstar will reach 25 million subscribers in India by the end of 2020.

This is also the latest example of Netflix experimenting with different promotional offers internationally. The company ditched its seven day free trial model in October, and said that it will look to highlight and promote its original programming in other ways in order to attract new subscribers.