India: Netflix, arguably the world’s biggest movie streaming service, may soon allow downloading of movies in countries like India. While in the past Netflix maintained that it would never allow downloading of the content because that doesn’t offer a long-term solution, after its global expansion recently it is probably realising that internet connection across the world is just not good enough for high-quality streaming.
In a statement to Recode, the Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said that now the company had somewhat changed stance on the idea of letting people download the content.
“We should keep an open mind on this. We’ve been so focused on click-and-watch and the beauty and simplicity of streaming. But as we expand around the world, where we see an uneven set of networks, it’s something we should keep an open mind about,” he said.
Although streaming is fairly popular, people in countries like India often prefer downloading the content because the internet speed is so low that streaming experience is not very nice. This is one of the reasons why YouTube last year added a feature for Indian users that allowed them to download videos.
Earlier, Netflix had said that it would not look at the download option. It was of the opinion that the low speed is temporary and something that would improve in future. In the long run, the company was of the opinion, streaming would be a better and more common practice.
When Netflix launched in India, we had highlighted that it should have added the download option for Indian consumers. In India, the service requires a minimum speed of 512kbps and recommends the speed of 3mbps for SD content and 5mbps for HD videos.
It is available for all screens, which means you can access it on a laptop, on a phone or on a tablet. For streaming videos on TV, the service requires a companion device such as an Xbox 360 or a device like Chromecast. The basic plan of Netflix costs Rs 500 in India while the premium plan is for Rs 800 per month.
Netflix may allow download of movies in India
