Airtel Signed With Apple For Free Apple TV+ and Music Subscriptions

Airtel has signed a new deal with Apple following the trend of bundled streaming services to provide its premium customers with free subscriptions to Apple TV+ and Apple Music in India. 

“A Large Appetite For High Quality Video Content”

In a report By Indian Express, “Large screen video content viewership is growing at a fast pace in India, and there is a large appetite for high quality video content among Indian users,” Airtel said in a press release.

On August 27, the telecom operator said Apple TV+ will be available bundled with premium Airtel WiFi and postpaid plans. Meanwhile, premium Airtel Wynk subscribers will be moved to Apple Music as it is being phased out. 

Airtel has a subscribers of over 281 million in India. On the other hand Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio has a subscriber base of 489 million.  Airtel’s Xstream Fiber broadcast plan, which already has a wide range of streaming content and will soon include Apple TV+.

Could Challenge The Big Players 

The details of the deal are still unknown but the partnership could challenge bigger players including Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ Hotstar, and JioCinema in the price-sensitive streaming market in India.

“This has created a space for OTT aggregators, allowing users to discover and view streaming content from multiple OTT apps in one place,” reported by Ernst & Young (EY) and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) as they have noticed an increase in subscription fatigue among Indian consumers.

The recent partnership between Apple and Airtel highlights the growing trend of bundling online content, with ISPs and telcos increasingly offering carrier plans that include multiple OTT service subscriptions. 

Last year, Netflix partnered with Reliance Jio to provide mobile-only subscriptions to its streaming platform for prepaid customers and such tie-ups are against the backdrop of a major merger involving Indian media assets worth Rs 70,350 crore between Reliance and Walt Disney, combining two significant streaming platforms, Disney+ and JioCinema. 

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