Netflix is one of the biggest on-demand streaming sites in the world and in 2015, they expanded to new regions including Kenya. Netflix usually charges diffrent prices in different regions and sometimes they use the local currency. In the US, they use dollars, in the UK they use the pound sterling, in UAE, they use dirhams and so on.
Since 2016, Netflix has charged its Kenyan subscribers in dollars and that has changed this month with a new directive.
This week, Netflix started charging its Kenyan users using the Kenyan shilling instead of the usual American dollar.
“We are writing to let you know that as of Tuesday, January 21st 2020, we will be switching to billing all members in Kenya in Kenyan shilling,” they said in the notice to its Kenyan customers. “This change is part of our ongoing work to improve Netflix for our members in Kenya.”
This means that Netflix will charge you in Kenya shillings in your next billing after 21st January 2020.
Netflix has also reviewed their prices for their basic, standard and premium packages.
| Basic | Standard | Premium | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly price | Kshs 700 | Kshs 950 | Kshs 1,200 |
| HD available | X | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Ultra HD available | X | X | ✔️ |
| Screens you can watch on at the same time | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| Watch on your laptop, TV, phone and tablet | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Unlimited movies and TV shows | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Cancel anytime | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ |
The new changes have efectively made the plans slightly cheaper than before. The $7.99 plan was effectively Kshs 806, $9.99 plan was Kshs 1,007 and the $11.99 plan was Kshs 1,209 as of today’s forex exchange rate.
The decision of going with local rates will make the price stable and make it a nice even figure that will resonate well with Kenyans. The forex conversion is usually weird for all of us and this will make it easy to have an even number that is cut from our cards monthly.
