Apple inks pact with Airtel to offer streaming, music services in India

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is collaborating with Indian telecom and broadband service provider Bharti Airtel to offer its music and video streaming services in India.

Airtel said on Tuesday that Apple TV+ will come bundled with premium Airtel WiFi and postpaid plans. The company’s broadband service is Airtel Xstream.

In addition, Airtel users will have access to the U.S. tech giant’s music service.

Airtel noted that premium users of its music streaming service Wynk will roll into Apple Music and get exclusive offers.

The Indian telecom giant is shutting down Wynk, 10 years after the service started. Over 100 million customers would initially become Apple Music subscribers for a limited free trial period, The Economic Times reported, citing people with knowledge of the matter.

Following the free trial, the Wynk customers would be given an option to become paying subscribers of Apple Music. All Wynk music employees will be absorbed in the Airtel ecosystem, the report added.

Airtel said that the Apple Music and Apple TV+ offers will become available exclusively to Airtel customers in India, later this year.

Apple TV+ is a smaller player in the Indian media and entertainment market compared to bigger rivals such as Netflix (NFLX), Amazon’s (AMZN) Amazon Prime Video Disney+ Hotstar (DIS) and billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s JioCinema.

Currently, Apple TV+ service starts at 99 Indian rupees (about $1.18) per month in India, while Netflix starts at 149 rupees per month. JioCinema has plans as low as 29 rupees per month.