Apple TV+ and Apple Music seek growth in India’s huge market with Airtel deal
Apple is expanding its footprint in India’s burgeoning streaming market by partnering with Bharti Airtel. This collaboration will provide Airtel’s premium customers with complimentary access to Apple Music and Apple TV+. By offering its services to Airtel’s vast user base, Apple aims to tap into the immense potential of India’s growing consumer market for streaming video and music subscriptions.
Munsif Vengattil and Aditya Kalra for Reuters:
With mostly English-language content, Apple TV+ is a small player in India’s $28 billion media and entertainment market, where its rivals include Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ Hotstar, and billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s JioCinema.
“Apple TV+ will come bundled with premium Airtel WiFi and Postpaid plans,” Airtel said in a statement on Tuesday, though the companies did not disclose a deal value for the partnership or information on costs.
Apple Music will also be available for current premium users of Airtel’s Wynk music app, which will be shut down. Its employees are being subsumed by the company, Airtel said.
Two sources familiar with the strategy said that for Apple, the deal is aimed at reaching out to a much bigger pool of consumers with its digital services given Airtel is the country’s second biggest telecom operator with 281 million subscribers. Ambani’s Reliance Jio telecom service has 489 million users.
Airtel will within days announce new tariff plans that will include free Apple TV+ offerings, said two other sources with direct knowledge of its plans.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple TV+ currently costs 99 Indian rupees (US$1.18) per month in India vesrus Ambani’s JioCinema which offers cricket content for free and has plans as cheap as 29 rupees a month. Netflix starts with a monthly subscription fee of 149 rupees. According to data from research firm Counterpoint, Apple, which, with iPhone, makes only premium smartphones, has 6% of India’s market comprised of some 690 million smartphone users.
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