Airtel Xstream Play crosses 5 million paid user mark; eyes 20 million

livemint.com:

Mint that Airtel Xstream Play is one of the fastest-growing aggregator apps and is looking at more OTT platforms to partner with and reach out to wider audiences. “Although India has 40+ OTT apps and a wide selection of premium video content, discovering and paying for this content is challenging. Airtel Xstream Play helps to bring together the largest selection of premium OTT apps under one app and one price.

We recently added Alt Balaji, Fancode and Playflix bringing us still closer to our ambition of having the widest selection of premium content and 20 million subscribers," Nair said. At its core, Airtel's approach to content is built on a simple philosophy: leverage their connectivity services, such as broadband and mobility, to enhance the use of content services. This approach is driven by the belief that content is a compelling use case to promote their connectivity services.

The focus is on offering a seamless and abundant content library to customers. Nair said that Airtel recognises that sustainable business requires customers to pay, a shift that has become apparent in recent years. Rather than offering content for free, Airtel now provides content through various packages based on a customer's chosen service, be it broadband or prepaid.

“We believe that things have to be sustainable and thus consumers need to pay for content. We had some things for free on telecom networks in the early stages of content adoption, but today, things are not free. Today, depending on your ability to pay, we bundle content services.