Tata Sky has recently been transformed into Tata Play and started offering a bundle of OTT channels in one app. Offering a similar consolidation of streaming platforms into one app, Bharti Airtel today launched a new video streaming service called "Xstream Premium".
The new service will aggregate content from XNUMX leading video apps with one login, one browser and one subscription at a launch cost of Rs XNUMX per month, the company said in a statement.
The service, the company said, is available only to Airtel service customers on any and all screens, including televisions, smartphones, tablets and computers.
Why the consolidation of OTT platforms in one application
Such consolidation or bundling of multiple OTT platforms in one app is unavoidable, considering that there are practically sixty-seventy active streamers in different languages in India, and tracking them separately can be complicated and even costly for many.
This merger of OTT platforms is being done by both telecom operators --- Jio, for example --- and DTH platforms that are finding conflicting business due to the fact that all the action is now on the streamers. Jio already offers its mobile and broadband subscribers plenty of OTT platforms for free. The number of OTT platforms that Jio offers depends on the subscription plan that has been chosen with it.
The Tata Sky DTH platform, now called Tata Play, also offers a Binge bundle in an app which, for a monthly fee, offers a bundle of OTT platforms including Netflix and Amazon Prime.
It so happens that Amazon Prime Video itself has launched the "Prime Video Channels", in which it offers content from eight other OTT video platforms. These can be accessed from the Amazon Prime Video app itself.
And now Airtel, which is both a telecommunications company and a DTH player (its Airtel TV is what became Airtel Xstream, which is a combination of satellite TV channels, the main OTT services, streaming music and gaming) takes exactly the same path.
Airtel XStream Premium targets twenty million subscriptions
Airtel XStream Premium, launched today, will also consolidate content from Indian and global video OTTs in one app. Customers of the service will have access to fifteen OTT platforms that it claims have a combined catalog of more than ten to five hundred movies and shows, as well as live channels.
Airtel XStream Premium platforms are: SonyLIV, ErosNow, Lionsgate Play, Hoichoi, ManoramaMax, Shemaroo, Ultra, HungamaPlay, EPICon, Docubay, DivoTV, Klikk, Nammaflix, Dollywood, Shorts TV.
Users can access Airtel Xstream Premium on mobile phones, tablets, laptops through the app or the web, and on TV through the Xstream decoder.
As it is a single sign-on, unified content search and AI-powered adaptive healing are free for users.
According to Media Partners Asia, by 2 India's OTT subscription market is expected to reach €500 billion from the current €XNUMX million. Multiple content houses have their OTT apps but, as reported, face cost and distribution issues. Then, the arrival of similar consolidation applications with scope and scale in the market.
Airtel is targeting XNUMX million subscriptions through this offer and is cooperating with many other OTT players, the company said.
In addition, Airtel is also considering a differential cost bundle system that will take into account the number of OTT platforms a user wants to subscribe to.
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