Vodafone revs up 4G acquisition charge with Netflix partnership

Vodafone has entered an exclusive mobile promotional partnership with Netflix, offering 4G customers a free six month trial to the movie and TV service, as it looks to catch up with rivals in attracting consumers to its 4G tariffs.

Netflix House of Cards
Vodafone 4G customers will be able to watch Netflix series such as House of Cards on their mobiles from July.

The trial will be available with Vodafone Red 4G price plans over £26 per month from July until December 2014.

The Netflix deal is in addition to Vodafone’s other content partnerships, offering customers a choice between a trial of Sky Sports Mobile or Spotify Premium on sign-up.

Cindy Rose, Vodafone UK consumer director, says: “With 4G, speed is just the start: it’s what you can do with it that’s really exciting. We’re delighted to be partnering with Netflix so that our Red 4G customers can enjoy their favourite TV programmes and films when out and about.”

Vodafone revealed in its 2013 annual results earlier this week that it has signed up more than 637,000 UK customers to its 4G tariffs.

Its 4G customer base lags far behind its rivals. EE said yesterday (21 May) it has 3.6 million customers, while Three has about 3 million customers on 4G tariffs, and O2 said in April it had 1 million 4G customers.

EE says it has now reached a “tipping point” where more new customers are signing up for 4G packages than 3G contracts.

On 20 May EE also became a founding member of the Mobile Video Alliance, which is run in partnership by the Digital TV Group and aims to bring the best possible experience of broadcast content on mobile platforms. Video currently takes up 50 per cent of data traffic on EE’s 4G network, a consumer behaviour the operator plans to reflect more overtly in its marketing activity going forward, a spokesman told Marketing Week.

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