by Thinus Ferreira
Netflix has done a price cut of up to 60% and is lowering fees for users in 100 countries including some in Africa, but while Namibia, Kenya, Botswana and Lesotho made the list for lower prices South Africa is not included.
A Netflix spokesperson on Friday told TVwithThinus that South Africa is excluded from the price adjustment in which users in 100 countries are now paying less for the global video streaming service.
The price cut comes as Netflix is cracking down on password sharing and rolling out limits on a country-by-country basis, while introducing a cheaper ad-funded tier - neither of which has been applied to South Africa yet.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Netflix is cutting prices in 30 countries, with follow-up reports in other publications that peg the number to be closer to 100 countries where users will now be paying between 13% to 60% less for the service.
The countries range from the Middle East to Asia, Latin America and Europe to Africa.
In Africa the countries which made Netflix's price cut list include Angola, Algeria, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic (CAR), Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Congo-Kinshasa, Ivory Coast, Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bassau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Malawi, Mali, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Tonga, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Other countries include Yemen, Jordan, Iran, Croatia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Venezuela, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and many more.
Like South Africa, the United States and the United Kingdom are also not seeing Netflix subscription fee price cuts.
In South Africa, Netflix competes with global streamers like Amazon Prime Legacy, Appel TV+ and Disney+, as well as against legacy satellite pay-TV providers like MultiChoice which announced its annual price increase for 2023 last week coming in effect from April, and with China's StarTimes SA that said it won't be increasing prices for StarSat in South Africa this year.
Another interesting note is that countries getting a price cut are places where Netflix is charged in American dollar.
In January Netflix executives still spoke about how they are looking at increasing Netflix pricing, with Disney+ that echoed the same market future guidance earlier this month.
As to why Netflix is now doing a price cut in certain countries, the Los Gatos-based company in a statement says "We know members have never had more choices when it comes to entertainment. We're always exploring ways to improve our members' experience. We can confirm that we are updating the pricing of our plans in certain countries."
