Apple’s new partnership with Bharti Airtel, India’s second-largest telecom provider, is set to significantly enhance its presence in the Indian content market, where it has struggled to compete with giants like Spotify and Disney.
This deal will grant many of Airtel’s 281 million customers access to free music and video streaming, boosting Apple TV+ and Apple Music’s reach in a market where Apple has traditionally focused more on manufacturing to diversify its supply chain.
Despite building many of its iPhones in India, Apple’s share of the Indian smartphone market remains relatively small at around 6%, though this is an improvement from 2% in 2019, according to Counterpoint Research. The partnership with Airtel is seen as a strategic move to elevate Apple’s profile in a critical market.
Nitesh Kripalani, former head of Amazon Prime Video India, noted that this approach is a proven strategy for establishing a strong market presence. In the U.S., Apple has used similar tactics, offering Apple Music for free with certain Verizon plans since 2019, and Apple TV+ will soon be included in a Comcast streaming bundle.
In India, Apple Music will be offered to premium users of Airtel’s Wynk music app, which is slated for closure. Currently, around seven million postpaid Airtel subscribers have access to the ad-free Wynk, though usage is limited, according to a telecom industry source.
Apple’s strategy for India involves leveraging its music services, which include Bollywood and regional songs, despite a smaller library compared to Spotify. Apple Music currently has about 200,000 paid users in India, significantly fewer than Spotify’s 3 million or Gaana’s 1.4 million.
The partnership is expected to be financially beneficial for Airtel, which will pay Apple a lower per-user fee than the standard $1.20 monthly charge for its services. In return, Airtel aims to boost revenue and enhance customer loyalty by replacing Wynk with Apple Music.
Apple TV+ currently has a smaller footprint in India, with fewer than one million users, compared to market leaders like Disney+ Hotstar and Netflix. Although Apple TV+ offers popular original series, it faces competition from services providing more localized content, including Bollywood films and cricket broadcasts.
Overall, while the partnership with Airtel will expand Apple’s reach, the effectiveness of this strategy in optimizing content for the Indian market remains to be seen.
