Over the top (OTT) growth is growing rapidly in India. At the same time, OTT platforms are also increasing, but it is not possible for everyone to subscribe to each major OTT separately. This is not even necessary, because all the telecom companies are providing many OTT subscriptions for free with their telecom or broadband plans. This is called a bundle subscription. OTT companies, telecom companies and customers all benefit in this.
There are about 117 crore mobile connections in India. Every mobile company is offering value-added services to garner and retain customers in such a huge market. One of them is bundled subscription to OTT. That is, with one plan, you get one or more subscriptions for free.
After downloading the app of any OTT, you can select the subscription plan mentioned on it.
This means that if the basic plans of all OTT are subscribed directly for a month, then only OTT can spend as much as Rs 1500. But it is not impossible to get many other benefits including OTT as well as mobile calling, internet data at the same cost.
Reliance Jio is called a 'disruptor' in the Indian telecom market. With its entry, the company made mobile calling and data so cheap that all other companies had to follow Jio.
In Jio Postpaid, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney Plus Hotstar all three are available in the monthly plan of Rs 399. In this, Amazon Prime subscription is available for one year.
This subscription is also available with Jio's postpaid plans of Rs 399, 599, 799, 999, 1499. The difference is that the bigger the postpaid plan you take, the better OTT plan you get with it.
Some prepaid plans of Jio also include Disney Plus Hotstar.
Apart from Netflix, almost all OTT platforms are available in Jio Fiber's Rs 999 monthly rental plan. Almost all OTT platforms including Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney Plus Hotstar, Zee Five, Sony Live, Voot Select are available in the Rs 1499 monthly rental plan.
In Airtel's postpaid plan, both Amazon Prime Video and Disney Plus Hotstar are available for Rs 499 a month.
In Airtel's prepaid plan, a recharge plan of Rs 599 for 56 days offers subscription to the mobile editions of Disney and Amazon Prime Video.
Amazon Prime and Zee Five are available in Vodafone-Idea's postpaid plan of Rs 499 monthly rental.
One year Netflix subscription is also available in Voda-Idea's RedX plan.
In Vodafone prepaid, Disney Plus Hotstar and Zee5 are available in the plan of Rs 401.
State-run telecom company Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is also in the race. Disney Plus Hotstar is available with most of its broadband plans. Zee Five, Sony Liv and Voot Select are also available in some plans.
For one year subscription to Netflix, a plan of Rs 5,988 has to be taken. If you add Amazon and Disney Hotstar together, then you will have to pay Rs 7,386 annually for all three. In Vodafone RedX, subscriptions of all three are available for Rs 13,188 for a year at Rs 1,099 for a month. Jio Fiber is providing this for Rs 1,499. In Jio's SIM card, almost all the major OTT will be available according to all the plans in the postpaid of Rs 399 to 1,499.
If there are SIM cards of different companies in the house, then seeing everyone's offer, you can get some OTT on one SIM and some on other SIM. For example, if you do not go for Vodafone-Idea's expensive RedX plan just for Netflix, then you can take good Netflix offers on Jio and other offers on Airtel or Voda-Idea. OTT subscription is an additional benefit in every company's plan, which includes data, calling and other benefits.
Everybody Wants Reach Film and OTT Trade Analyst Girish Wankhede talks about bundle packages that every OTT needs Reach. Every OTT platform knows that telecom and broadband companies have a huge customer base. If they want, they will not be able to garner as many customers on their own as the bundled package will get. However, everyone needs volume and the bundled subscription is a game for volume.
There is a revenue sharing between OTT and telecom companies. It spend the same way to get their subscribers. Some part of the expenditure gets shared here in collaboration with the telecom company.
India's market is price sensitive. Here the customer makes any decision regarding the purchase, the price is very important in it. Multinational OTT platforms also know this. So they are adopting a bundle package formula to get more customers.
This bundled subscription is a win for everyone. Telecom companies give value addition to their customer, OTT gets the subscriber and the cost for the subscriber is reduced.
Vanshan Born Company conducted a survey of India's entertainment and communication market for its client Amdocs. It revealed that 79% of India's people want video streaming, entertainment and communication in a single bundle.
A senior official of an OTT company said that one of the reasons for piracy in OTT is also the cost factor. People do not want to spend separately for OTT, but if they get it with the mobile plan then they will watch and will not find pirated content.