If price hikes were a trend in the West, major platforms in India are now experiencing the same reality. However, a recent allegation against SonyLIV might just make it one of the biggest villains in the industry.
To clue you in, yesterday was the UCL final, and Indian fans had only two options: either tune into Sony’s Linear Cable or SonyLIV. The recent accusations state that Sony increased the price before the UCL game, anticipating a large influx of new users subscribing to the premium service.
It appears that SonyLIV wanted to capitalize on this surge, but in an unethical manner.
Prior to the final, SonyLIV had more affordable plans. The annual plan was ₹999, the six-month plan was ₹699, and the monthly plan was ₹299. However, before the UCL final, the plans changed.
The new yearly plan saw a hike of ₹500, making it now ₹1499, which is definitely a hefty price. Additionally, the monthly plan, which already had a high price tag, now comes with an even worse one. The monthly plan now costs ₹399, making it comparable to Netflix’s monthly plan, but only in terms of price.
Even if this hike might be pointed out as a coincidence, the increase in price does look absurd. Competing with Prime Video and Netflix at such high price points will never be successful.
People usually utilize SonyLIV mostly during sports events, and if they have to deal with such high price points, it will simply discourage them, resulting in fewer users and potentially causing further price hikes in the future.