Airtel aims to garner 20 million customers through premium aggregated OTT offering

Bharti Airtel will offer access to more than a dozen over the top (OTT) video streaming apps including SonyLiv and Lionsgate Play through Airtel Xstream Premium which will provide a single app and single log in starting at Rs 149 a month and Rs 1,499 a year.  

Adarsh Nair, chief product officer at Airtel told Mint that the carrier has entered into a revenue share model with the apps which will be beneficial for the app providers, while consumers will get unhindered access to all content including premium content on the apps through a single account.  

"This is an industry first and provides ease of use to customers... We aim to be one of the top four content streaming apps in the customers' basket," he said. Airtel is aiming to garner 20 million customers in the near term in subscription market which is expected to grow to $ 2 billion in a few years from present levels of $500 million.  

The carrier is aiming growth from regional content which it expects to grow manifold in the coming years. Nair said that that while overall subscription market will rise to 165-200 million paying customers over the next five years, the market for regional content will rise to 90 million subscribers in the next five years from 15 million at present.   

Customers will get access to 10,500 movies, shows and live channels from SonyLIV, ErosNow, Lionsgate Play, Hoichoi, ManoramaMax, Shemaroo, Ultra, HungamaPlay, EPICon, Docubay, DivoTV, Klikk, Nammaflix, Dollywood, Shorts TV on Airtel Xstream Premium.  

The carrier aims to monetise the service by offering seamless user experience with a single app, single subscription, single sign-in, unified content search and AI driven personalized curation for each user.  

Users can access Airtel Xstream Premium across mobiles, tablets, laptops through the app or web and on the TV through the Xstream set-top-box.   

Airtel which has 340 million mobile phone subscribers, expects revenue upside from the partnerships as well as from distribution. However, major OTT apps Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney Hotstar will continue to be standalone partnerships with the carrier which will be separate monetization streams for the carrier