About a month ago, we told you that Netflix was testing a brand new subscription tier, a mobile-only plan that would allow users to sign up for the popular streaming service for just around $4 a month. That plan was being tested in Malaysia, but that’s hardly the only test Netflix has been conducting recently. New Netflix users signing up for the service in Austria just discovered a brand new option with weekly payments priced as low as €2.49 ($2.83).
That price goes up to €2.99 ($3.40) or €3.99 ($4.53), SmartDroid reports. It’s an odd test, to say the least — if you’re looking to stay a Netflix subscriber for longer than a few weeks, then you’d save money by going for a monthly plan. You won’t pay less, but it’d be much less of a hassle. However, if you only want to access Netflix when certain series are released, binge them over the course of a week and then be done with the service until the next Netflix original series or movie you’ll want to see premieres, then the weekly subscription might make sense. That’s probably the best use case scenario for this payment plan and the only way to save money.
But don’t cross your fingers for this new plan to reach your market anytime soon. German-language blog Caschy reached out to Netflix inquiring about the new pricing tiers. As expected, the company confirmed it’s all just a test:
Netflix is currently testing various payment options in small, selected areas. The goal is to make Netflix more enjoyable and accessible to people around the world. In this case, we will easily test different payment options to better understand which payment options members find useful. These tests usually vary in the duration of the test and in the area, so not every potential user performs such test functions.
There’s no telling whether Netflix will decide to introduce weekly subscriptions alongside regular monthly plans, but it sure looks like Netflix is trying a bunch of different things to see what sticks as it looks to boost revenue.
