Netflix has started offering a cheaper streaming plan option in North America, the new plan will come in at $6.99, which is just one dollar short of the regular $7.99 option, so what's the catch? The cheaper plan comes with two restrictions:

The cheap plan will only allow users to stream on one device at a time to limit account sharing and while you will have full access to the Netflix library of movies and TV shows, none of it will be available in HD. This new plan sits next to two already established subscription offerings, the $7.99 plan which includes HD streaming and the ability to stream on two devices at a time, and then there's the $11.99 family plan which allows customers to stream on up to four devices simultaneously.

It's not known if the non HD plan will become available to all customers as right now there is some inconsistency in the statements coming out, Adweek was told that Netflix “will definitely offer it on a wider basis.” However, Cnet received a different statement: “At Netflix we continuously test new things. In this case we are testing a $6.99 single stream price point. Not everyone will see this and we may not ever offer it generally.”

KitGuru Says: At this price point, I'm not sure why someone would sacrifice HD streams. That said, maybe if the plan was reduced to $4.99, I could see it appealing to more customers.

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