Netflix Will Offer Free Trial Of Its Full Service For A Weekend, Starting In India

Netflix will offer a free trial of its full service to everyone in a country for one weekend, starting in India and going to other global territories.

The streaming giant revealed the plan during its third-quarter earnings interview, which followed the release of results that undershot subscriber and earnings estimates.

Chief Product Officer Greg Peters said the giveaway “could be a great way to expose a lot of people” to the service. He called it “an idea that we’re excited about and we’ll see how it goes.” No details were announced about the timing or details of the offer.

Netflix recently ended a 30-day free trial promotion. The company runs hundreds of “A/B” tests of a wide range of product features as well as promotional efforts. In terms of promotions, it has a wide range of different initiatives in different parts of the world. As COVID-19 kicked in, the company made a selection of documentary films and shows available free via YouTube as a way of helping schoolteachers.

Co-CEO Ted Sarandos said the company is “always looking at new, different ways for people to get a sample of the content that everyone’s talking about, including trying our service out in different ways.”

On a similar note, when asked by interview moderator Kannan Venkateshwar, a media analyst at Barclays, Sarandos said the company is not actively considering “reverse licensing” of its own originals to other platforms. Free streaming platforms like Pluto have set a number of deals recently with cable properties like The Walking Dead and recently Netflix drama Narcos. Sarandos said Gaumont owns Narcos and was able to make that deal.

“Mostly I think it’s important for us to keep our content on Netflix, so that people understand the value of Netflix,” Sarandos said.

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