Netflix is testing cheaper subscription tiers for monsters who only watch movies on their phones

By Britt Hayes | November 14, 2018 | 9:23pm

Aux Features Netflix

In news that will surely appeal to certain parents, uncles, and anyone else who still has motion-smoothing activated on their television, Netflix is testing out a new subscription tier—this one for people who only stream content on their mobile phones. According to a report in Malaysian newspaper The Star, Netflix is testing out a mobile plan that costs about half as much as a normal subscription. As of now, Netflix is only testing the plan in international markets, where cell phones are the primary device for watching movies and TV shows. (Netflix users in Asian countries, for instance, spend much more time looking at their phones than at computers or watching television.)

But people in “mobile-first” countries aren’t the only ones turning to cell phones to watch streaming content. Netflix’s director of product innovation previously told Quartz that “60 percent of members around the world now open Netflix’s mobile app at least once a month to watch a TV show or movie.” That number could increase depending on how often users are forced to visit those aforementioned relatives who haven’t figured out how to disable motion-smoothing and now claim they “like it better that way.”