No reason why Netflix cannot acquire 100 mn subscribers in India over time: Ted Sarandos  

Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos says the global streaming giant could over time scale up its user base to 100 million subscribers in India – one of the fastest growing markets for the company – on the back of multiple price points and expanded content offerings. 

Early on in Netflix’s India journey, Co-Founder Reed Hastings had said the service’s next 100 million subscribers would come from India. But the streamer, which has a total user base of 247 million subscribers globally as of September 2023, is estimated to have less than 10 million subscribers in India currently.  It does not break out country-wise figures. 

“We used to be a one-price point product (in India). Now we’ve got multiple entry points that will continue to evolve over time…There is no reason not to think that (hitting 100 million subscribers in India) could happen over time. On what time span, we’re not exactly sure,” Co-CEO Ted Sarandos said in a select media interaction in Hyderabad on Friday.  

The service’s premium positioning in India both in terms of content and pricing has been blamed for its inability to scale up, while Disney+ Hotstar dominates the market with over 40 million subscribers and Amazon Prime Video’s has amassed an estimated 20 million subscribers in the South Asian market. 

Recently, however, the firm appears to be making a concerted effort to appeal to a wider audience base in India. Sarandos says it’s the variety of programming that leads to being more mass market offering, which was the case with Netflix globally as well. “We keep expanding the offering so that we can address more and more people. We want to be the first place you go to when you watch a movie or a TV series.” 

“If you look at the kind of offering – OMG 2 has had a second life on the service, it is as mass as it gets,” says Vice President, Content, Netflix India, Monika Shergill. Listing out the names of recent theatrical movies which the streamer has acquired such as Shahrukh Khan-starrer Jawan, Tamil movie Leo, Telugu movie Kushi, and Kapil Sharma’s COMEDY SHOW which is coming to the service soon, Shergill adds: “The kind of programming we are doing is reflective of the audience which is on the service and joining.” “Our price changed last year, too, that signalled this is a more mainstream product as well,” adds Sarandos.  

In April 2023, he had called India a big prize where it is important for the global streaming giant to get pricing and payments methods right. He had also pointed out that a price reduction in December 2021 increased user engagement by 30 per cent and revenue growth of 24 per cent in 2022 compared to the year prior, making India the fastest growing market for the streamer. On Friday, however, he says India is still among the top markets that are growing the fastest for Netflix. 

Unlike the US where Netflix became a success in the face of expensive cable television, India is a price-sensitive market with relatively cheaper linear TV subscriptions. Besides, more than 500 million Indians consume free content on YouTube.   

On further price cuts, Sarandos says they are focussed on increasing the value. “When we first started streaming 16 years ago, the alternative to Netflix was piracy. We knew at the very beginning we had to be better than free. That’s really helped us in markets like India where TV is very inexpensive.” He also calls YouTube an adjacent model as Netflix’s trailers and Behind-The-Scenes videos also get viewed on the platform.  

Without revealing specifics, Sarandos also says that Netflix’s content investments in India have accelerated. “As properties grow, revenue grows and content investment grows with it. Our investment in India has grown.” Hastings said in December 2019 that the firm planned to invest Rs 3,000 crore on original Indian content over two years. The firm has since not given out investment figures. In 2024, Netflix has a bigger global annual content budget of $17 billion to play with.  

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