Airtel bets big on OTT with its new Xstream Premium

As content on demand continues to gain popularity amongst the Indian audience, an increasing number of OTT players are experimenting with new ways to woo customers. Although Airtel had its Xstream OTT service in the market, the company is redesigning the offering with Xstream Premium. Users will be able to access content from over 10 OTT platforms with a single login.

The Xstream Premium will be available at an introductory price of Rs 149 per month or Rs 1499 annually, and will be available on mobiles, tablets, on laptops through app or web, and on TVs through Xstream set-top-box. With this new offering, Airtel is targeting 20 million subscriptions.

“Airtel Xstream Premium is a game changing innovation to democratise OTT content in India by solving the key challenges of content discovery, affordability and distribution. As a unified digital platform, it’s a win-win proposition for customers and OTT players alike as we begin an exciting journey to make digital entertainment mainstream in India,” says Adarsh Nair, CEO - Airtel Digital.

According to Airtel, customers today have dozens of OTT entertainment app to choose from and subscribing for each of them individually adds to a lot of subscription cost. With the Airtel Xstream Premium offering, Airtel will allow users to access content from different OTT platforms using a single login and payment option. This new offering aggregates over 10,500 movies and shows along with live channels from 15 Indian and global video OTT’s including SonyLIV, ErosNow, Lionsgate Play, Hoichoi, ManoramaMax, Shemaroo, Ultra, HungamaPlay, EPICon, Docubay, DivoTV, Klikk, Nammaflix, Dollywood, Shorts TV on Airtel Xstream Premium.

“We are thrilled to join forces with Airtel Xstream to accelerate India’s video OTT ecosystem. Our partnership with Airtel Xstream will bring premium content – from Originals, Movies, Sports and Sony India network content in all the leading languages and top shows from Hollywood to over 340 million Airtel customers. SonyLIV’s rich content library, coupled with Airtel Xstream’s deep distribution reach and massive scale capabilities, make it a perfect partnership for both sides and we look forward to a long and successful association,” pointed out Manish Aggarwal, Head - Growth and Monetisation, SonyLIV.

According to media research firm Media Partners Asia, by 2025, India’s OTT subscription market is expected to grow to a whopping $2 billion from the current $500 million. This will be led by 3X growth in subscriptions to approximately 165 million. A large proportion of these new subscriptions will come from new users from Tier 2 and 3 markets.