The difference between R99 and R169 Netflix

Netflix recently announced new pricing for South Africa, with a shift away from US dollar prices to rand.

The new rand pricing is as follows:

Basic – R99 pm
Standard – R139 pm
Premium – R169 pm

The new pricing structure guarantees a fixed monthly subscription fee for South Africans, who previously paid an appropriate dollar conversion – which was affected by the exchange rate.

Following the publication of the new pricing, Netflix’s different subscription tiers were once again brought into the spotlight, with a reader asking what the main differences between the packages on offer – Basic, Standard, and Premium – are.

Particularly, do lower-end packages lose out on any content?

Netflix packages

The short answer is no – your package does not influence the content you get, and all the plans receive the same series, movies, and shows.

The differences come into play when you look at the quality of the streams and the number of devices you can use your Netflix account on.

First off, the different plans offer different streaming resolutions – essentially, how good the video looks.

A higher resolution means more pixels on your screen, which translates to a better picture quality – especially when using large screens like a modern TV.

The maximum resolutions on offer from the Netflix packages, as noted by Xfinity, are as follows:

Basic – SD (Standard Definition), 480p (854 x 480 in 16:9)
Standard – HD (High Definition), 1080p (1,920 x 1,080 in 16:9)
Premium – UHD (Ultra High Definition), 2160p (3,840 x 2,160 in 16:9)

As “more pixels” are being served to a user as the streaming resolutions go up, you will require a faster Internet connection to ensure your series and movies play smoothly.

Netflix therefore recommends the following broadband connections for its stream resolutions:

SD – 3Mbps
HD – 5Mbps
UHD – 25Mbps

Multiple devices

The second difference between the Netflix packages is how many screens you can watch on at the same time.

If you have an account, and your sibling, partner, or parent wants to watch Netflix too – whenever they want – you can add a profile for them or give them your access details.

The number of simultaneous screens available – users watching at the same time on different devices – depends on what account you have, and is limited as follows:

Basic – 1 screen
Standard – 2 screens
Premium – 4 screens

Besides the differences listed above, all the tiers share the same properties: they work on all Netflix-supported devices, all the content is available to watch as often as you want, you can cancel at any time, and your first month is free.