How much data it take to watch a movie on Netflix? That’s a question that you may have been asking yourself. Netflix has been growing over the past few years in South Africa. It’s a direct competitor for DSTV. However, to watch Netflix, you need to have an internet connection. That’s where the major challenge emerges. Data is not really that cheap in South Africa. So, you may be wondering how much data you are going to need to watch an entire movie on Netflix.
Netflix Data Usage South Africa
The amount of data that you are going to need to watch a full movie on Netflix in South Africa will depend on streaming quality. That, in turn, is related to the package that you have opted for. Netflix offers 4 packages in South Africa; Mobile, Basic, Standard and Premium. Assuming that you will be watching a movie in Standard Definition (SD) you will need about 2GB of data for a full movie. The table below shows the amount of data that you will require, depending on video quality;
| Video Quality | Hourly data usage | Total per movie |
|---|---|---|
| Low | 0.3 GB | 0.6 GB |
| Medium | 0.7 GB | 1.4 GB |
| SD | 1 GB | 2 GB |
| HD | 3 GB | 6 GB |
| UHD (4K) | 7 GB | 14 GB |
Explanation
Let’s take a few moments to explain the above table. If you are watching a movie in low video quality on Netflix in South Africa, you will need about 0.6GB to watch the entire movie. However, that’s not really good enough, unless you are watching the movie on a phones. That’s just our view. Video quality is severely compromised in this mode.
The Medium setting is better in terms of video quality. However, it’s still not up to standard in terms of viewing on large screens. If you are watching your movie on a 7 inch screen, then that’s fine. But on a bigger device, you will start to get pixelating, negating the entire movie watching experience.
Standard definition should, in our view, be the benchmark here. Running on SD, you need about 2GB to watch a full movie. That’s based on 2 hours as the average length for each movie. Most movies are slightly less than this, however.
On HD, you need 6GB of data per movie, while on UHD, you need about 14GB per movie. HD is the ideal video quality in today’s world. UHD eats up the most data.
You can limit your data usage
The good news, for those who are on a data budget, is that it’s possible to adjust the Netflix data usage. You can adjust playback settings in your Account under Profile and Parental Controls.
However, there is a price to pay for restricting data usage. It means video quality will suffer, unless you are streaming on a very small screen. In most instances, you will want to stream at least in SD.
Anything below that could be viewed as too much of a compromise.
Which Networks Offer Enough Data for Netflix in South Africa?
Data is still expensive in South Africa, particularly for full time streaming. In the United States, PC Magazine has previously reported that people watch 3.2 hours of Netflix per day. That translates into about 10 GB per day. Streaming is mainly in HD.
Taking that as a model, you need at least 300GB of data per month for Netflix. If you are in South Africa, you will probably be better off getting an unlimited data plan. You can get one of these on most networks. We have previously looked at whether or not Rain has a data limit.
The Rain unlimited 4G plan costing R479 would probably be ideal for Netflix. You get unlimited data, though there is a catch to the unlimited bit. That’s normal for any network. Usually, they will start restricting you should you go beyond 1 terabyte in one month.
Summary
Hopefully, we have answered the question, how much data does it take to watch a movie on Netflix in South Africa. The amount of data used depends on video quality.
Do you have questions? Feel free to ask them here. You can also participate in our Forum. Our experts are there to answer all your questions on the platform.