Netflix to give Indian users free access for one weekend

This weekend-long free access from Netflix is a part of a test to expand its reach in the country.

Peters said that Netflix plans to give everyone in a country free access to Netflix for a weekend as it would be a great way to “expose a bunch of new people to the amazing stories that we have, the service and how it works...and hopefully get a bunch of those folks to sign up”. (REUTERS)

Update: Netflix's free 48-hour trial will be available on December 4 under a promotional offer called "StreamFest". This offer will only be available to Indian users. 

Netflix is planning to give its Indian users access to its service for free for a weekend. This news comes courtesy a TechCrunch report that cites a top company executive and also mentions that the one-weekend free access is a part of Netflix's plans to test expanding its reach in the country.

Netflix's plans to expand its reach in the country comes soon after the company reported slow user growth for the quarter ending in September. The streaming giant also recently stopped offering its first-month-free complimentary access to new users in the US. 

However, Netflix still has plans to keep experimenting with “new ways to lure” potential customers in many parts of the world, said Greg Peters, COO and Chief Product Officer at Netflix on the earnings call, as per the TechCrunch report.

And one of those new ways of luring customers seems to be giving away free access to Netflix for a weekend in different markets, Peters said.

Netflix has picked India, where it competes with Disney+Hotstar, Amazon Prime Video and “technically three-dozen additional services”, as the first market to test this idea. Peters says that they will “see how that goes” from here.

Peters said that Netflix plans to give everyone in a country free access to Netflix for a weekend as it would be a great way to “expose a bunch of new people to the amazing stories that we have, the service and how it works...and hopefully get a bunch of those folks to sign up”.

Netflix, however, has not mentioned when they are planning to roll out the new test.

So, if you already subscribe to Netflix, you probably won't get this free weekend, this is for all those people who don't have an account yet

This is not the first time the company has decided to use India as a test for new ideas. The company had tested a monthly mobile plan in the country in New Delhi in before introducing it as a permanent tier across the country last year and then in z dozen other markets.