After Airtel Partnership, Apple Gears Up for Music and TV Streaming Battle in India

Apple's collaboration with India's second-largest telecom company will provide a much-needed boost in a content market where it trails behind major players like Spotify and Walt Disney. As the U.S. tech giant aims to increase global revenue from services such as apps, payments, and media, it plans to offer free music and video streaming to a significant portion of Bharti Airtel's 281 million customers.

The agreement is expected to significantly broaden the user base for Apple TV+ and Apple Music in a market where Apple has primarily focused on manufacturing to diversify its supply chain away from China. While Apple assembles many of its iPhones in India, its devices account for only 6% of the country’s 690 million smartphones, up from about 2% in 2019, according to Counterpoint Research data.

"The move speaks of Apple's ambitions for India," said Nitesh Kripalani, former head of Amazon Prime Video in India. "The strategy is a time-tested method to catapult presence in markets it considers important."

In the U.S., Apple has provided Apple Music at no extra cost through select Verizon mobile data plans since 2019, and starting in May, Apple TV+ will be included in a Comcast streaming bundle. In India, Apple Music will be accessible to premium users of Airtel's Wynk music app, which will eventually be discontinued. Currently, around 7 million postpaid Airtel subscribers have access to the ad-free version of Wynk, though only a small portion actually use it, according to a telecom industry source who requested anonymity due to the confidential nature of the data.

MUSIC BATTLEGROUND

Apple Music is better suited to the Indian market than the predominantly English Apple TV+, featuring Bollywood and regional-language songs, although its library is smaller compared to Spotify’s, said  Counterpoint co-founder Neil Shah. An Indian music industry source, who chose to remain anonymous due to restrictions on sharing public estimates, reported that Spotify has around 3 million paid users in India, Gaana has 1.4 million, Wynk has 500,000, and Apple Music has 200,000.

Neither Spotify nor Gaana provided comments outside of regular business hours. Data from the industry group FICCI and consultants EY indicated that, out of approximately 185 million users of both ad-supported and ad-free apps in India, only around 7.5 million paid for audio streaming services last year.

According to a telecom industry source, Airtel will pay Apple a per-user fee that is "significantly" lower than the $1.20 monthly charge for Apple TV+ and Apple Music in India. In exchange, Airtel aims to save millions of rupees in licensing costs by shutting down Wynk and leveraging Apple Music to enhance revenue and customer loyalty, as noted by a second telecom source.

"Airtel realized its strength is distribution, not content creation," said the source on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to discuss the matter.

VIDEO STREAMING

Apple remains a minor player in the Indian video streaming market, with Counterpoint estimating fewer than 1 million users. In contrast, Disney+ Hotstar leads the market with 38 million users, while Netflix is estimated to have around 10 million. Indicating the market's potential, Netflix has consistently stated its goal of reaching 100 million users, although it has not specified a timeline.

Apple TV+ is recognized for its original series like "The Morning Show" and "Slow Horses," but competitors such as Netflix and Disney offer more Hindi content featuring Bollywood actors, as well as films in regional languages. Disney and Reliance Industries' JioCinema also broadcast cricket, India's most popular sport, and are merging their Indian media benefits to form the country's largest entertainment company. Airtel, which is the second-largest telecom provider after Reliance Jio, is also expanding its presence in the media space.