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On Tuesday, August 27, AAPL.O announced a strategic deal with India's second-largest telecom operator, Airtel, to unveil competitively priced streaming bundles later this year. According to Reuters, Bharti Airtel announced that those bundles will cost around 99 rupees per month for Apple Music and 199 rupees per month for Apple TV+, and reportedly will be available to Airtel premium customers as one of the most attractive price offerings in the Indian market.
This would also place Apple in a strategic position to challenge industry leaders like Spotify SPOT.N and Walt Disney DIS.N. The telecom major has more than 281 million subscribers in the country, while its closest rival, Reliance Jio, has 489 million subscribers. For Apple, this partnership with Airtel offers a critical platform for growing the reach of its streaming services.
Interestingly, this falls right in the middle of the festival season in India, believed to be the time of the year when people generally tend to spend a lot on consumer goods.
As the former head of Amazon Prime Video in India, Nitesh Kripalani, succinctly put it to ET, "The move speaks of Apple's ambitions for India. The strategy is time-tested for catapulting presence in markets it considers important." Just like it does in the U.S., for example, where since 2019 it has sold Apple Music with Verizon mobile data plans, and starting May 2024, it will also sell Apple TV+ as part of Comcast's streaming bundles.
Amit Tripathi, Chief Marketing Officer & EVP of Customer Experience for Bharti Airtel explained this move further by noting that “Large screen video content viewership is growing at a fast pace in India, and there is a large appetite for high-quality video content among Indian users,".
It will also have personalized subscription packs with regional content to meet the diverse needs of Indian consumers. It reportedly continues to seek additional content deals with local creators and studios, further lifting its standing with this diverse and growing market. A focus on localization and quality is sure to be a hit with Indian consumers.
These offers for Apple TV+ and Apple Music are available for Airtel's premium customers later this year, just in time for the festive season. This also underlines Apple's commitment to expanding its ecosystem here, having steadily grown its presence in the Indian market. With more innovations in services and further localization, Apple is sure to make India a much larger growth driver ahead.
