Airtel beefs up content play, but it's a long haul
Smarting from Jio's
onslaught, Airtel is clawing back by improving content curation and user
experience.
Devina Sengupta 23 Jul 2018
The
red-and-orange walls on the ground floor of Bharti Airtel's command centre in
Gurugram add to its busy look. Employees flit around with a sense of urgency,
unlike those on rest of the muted-toned landings. This floor is different — it
houses a team of 120 whose job is to beat the competition everyday by plying
subscribers with content, enticing them into remaining glued to their mobile
screens and not get waylaid by rivals' offers.
"If more people adopt more digital products from the same service provider, it has a positive correlation with customer stickiness. So, when Airtel Payments Bank, Wynk Music, and Airtel TV come together in a bundle, it impacts customer stickiness favourably," says Sameer Batra, CEO, content and apps, Bharti Airtel.
Batra and his team are going full steam ahead to ensure that video-streaming app Airtel TV and music app Wynk remain relevant. Airtel TV offers 370-plus live channels and a library of more than 10,000 movies and web series, while Wynk has more than 90 million app installs and 3.5 million songs in 14 languages.
"By November 2017, Airtel TV had reached a point of inflexion. It was time to up the game. We re-launched the app, and from then on, we have seen a huge surge in downloads," says Batra. "By March 2018 end, it was the most downloaded video app on Google Play Store, hitting the milestone of 50 million instals along the way."
Batra's room has whiteboards all around, on which his young team keeps plotting the trajectory of their content strategy. The team has a high-pressure job on its hands because content has become Airtel's second battlefront, after tariffs, against Mukesh Ambani's rampaging Reliance Jio Infocomm.
The consumption pattern of Indian customers in the content segment is at a nascent stage but is expected to grow many times over in the coming years. Analysts estimate that content will become an important revenue model for operators in a few years, as tariffs have bottomed out. According to data aggregator App Annie, in 2017, Jio TV and Jio Music ranked 10 and 19 respectively among the top apps across Apple's App store and Google’s Play Store combined. Wynk and Airtel TV came in at 37 and 72, respectively.
In the May-June this year, Airtel TV was among the top six entertainment apps downloaded from Google Play Store India and one of the top 10 for iPhone users in India. The more established Wynk was among the top five music and audio apps downloaded in May-June from Google Play Store India and the No. 1 downloaded music app for iPhone users in the country during the same period.
"If more people adopt more digital products from the same service provider, it has a positive correlation with customer stickiness. So, when Airtel Payments Bank, Wynk Music, and Airtel TV come together in a bundle, it impacts customer stickiness favourably," says Sameer Batra, CEO, content and apps, Bharti Airtel.
Batra and his team are going full steam ahead to ensure that video-streaming app Airtel TV and music app Wynk remain relevant. Airtel TV offers 370-plus live channels and a library of more than 10,000 movies and web series, while Wynk has more than 90 million app installs and 3.5 million songs in 14 languages.
"By November 2017, Airtel TV had reached a point of inflexion. It was time to up the game. We re-launched the app, and from then on, we have seen a huge surge in downloads," says Batra. "By March 2018 end, it was the most downloaded video app on Google Play Store, hitting the milestone of 50 million instals along the way."
Batra's room has whiteboards all around, on which his young team keeps plotting the trajectory of their content strategy. The team has a high-pressure job on its hands because content has become Airtel's second battlefront, after tariffs, against Mukesh Ambani's rampaging Reliance Jio Infocomm.
The consumption pattern of Indian customers in the content segment is at a nascent stage but is expected to grow many times over in the coming years. Analysts estimate that content will become an important revenue model for operators in a few years, as tariffs have bottomed out. According to data aggregator App Annie, in 2017, Jio TV and Jio Music ranked 10 and 19 respectively among the top apps across Apple's App store and Google’s Play Store combined. Wynk and Airtel TV came in at 37 and 72, respectively.
In the May-June this year, Airtel TV was among the top six entertainment apps downloaded from Google Play Store India and one of the top 10 for iPhone users in India. The more established Wynk was among the top five music and audio apps downloaded in May-June from Google Play Store India and the No. 1 downloaded music app for iPhone users in the country during the same period.
Aggregation versus original content
However, industry experts doubt Airtel's strategy of aggregating content instead of going for originals as Jio has done.
"Original content is unique, and an important differentiator," says Sandip Das, senior analyst at telecom and media consultancy firm Analysys Mason. "Borrowed content is dependent on incoming feed and has to be altered for the small screen, which has its own challenges."
The Airtel content team is sure it wants to continue aggregating with the top content producers for now but does not rule out going for original content. Bharti Airtel's managing director and CEO for India and South Asia, Gopal Vittal, recently said that the telco is considering commissioning exclusive content.
"Is it logical to invest in original content at some point in time? Maybe. However, the aggregation opportunity is still a long way from being exhausted," says Batra. "Our strengths are in marketing, distribution, scaling up technology, and smart curation using machine learning or artificial intelligence, while our partners bring in the right content."
He adds that the company will continue with the partnership model till the time it feels there’s a gap between what customers want and what’s available in the market.
My code can impact millions, and this team is like a startup
inside Airtel.Sahil Ajmani, software
engineer with Airtel TV
Airtel has alliances with
HOOQ, Eros Now, Sony LIV, ALTBalaji, and recently partnered with Amazon Prime
Video and Hotstar.
The company, which is expected to widen its losses in the April-June quarter due to revenue pressure, has decided to focus on eight segments, including devotion, sports, and music, and curate the content according to subscribers’ demands. It has also tied up with subject-matter experts to add exclusivity, like it did during the recent football World Cup for match analysis.
It is not too keen on acquisitions, in contrast with Reliance, which recently bought music app Saavn to create a USD1 billion entity, in which the Ambani-owned company will have 75% stake.
Bridging the content-revenue gap
Experts believe aggregating content and feeding it to user cohorts won’t be enough. "Globally telcos are becoming content companies," says an analyst who does not want to be named. "They [Airtel] are distributing content, but how will they monetise it? Just by aggregating, how will they differentiate themselves from DTH players?"
He also questions Airtel’s lack of hiring from global companies where content experts have worked on the growth curve that India is witnessing now.But Batra’s team of 120 are not usual hires either. The telco says it has recruited them after testing their problem-solving skills with live case studies and coding challenges and shortlisting them via hackathons.
"My code can impact millions," says Sahil Ajmani of Airtel TV, "and this team is like a startup inside Airtel."
Hired from a flight-ticketing company in 2016, the 24-year-old software engineer says he had to go through multiple hackathons, which included coding tests to create a feature for extracting the most popular songs based on a day’s consumption.
Cracking monetisation
Companies including Airtel are toggling with ways of monetising and testing out the model that can pamper customers the most.
In music, Airtel has a model that combines both subscription and advertising. Airtel TV is currently offered free to Airtel customers but eventually some form of monetisation will be introduced. The free membership was recently extended till December 2018.
"The true test is in becoming a differentiated and superior product in the eyes of our customers," says Batra. "While revenue generation is the eventual goal for every player, right now all of them are experimenting. We feel it's still a nascent market, and we are focused on driving growth."
While Airtel TV is available only to the telco's customers, Wynk Music, like any other over-the-top (OTT) app, is open to access. The company claims it has a healthy mix of Airtel and non-Airtel users.
Headwinds outside telecom
However, the competition for Airtel's content team isn’t limited to telcos. There are the likes of Netflix and Amazon, who are tweaking their subscription rates to deepen their penetration in the Indian video-streaming market.
The company, which is expected to widen its losses in the April-June quarter due to revenue pressure, has decided to focus on eight segments, including devotion, sports, and music, and curate the content according to subscribers’ demands. It has also tied up with subject-matter experts to add exclusivity, like it did during the recent football World Cup for match analysis.
It is not too keen on acquisitions, in contrast with Reliance, which recently bought music app Saavn to create a USD1 billion entity, in which the Ambani-owned company will have 75% stake.
Bridging the content-revenue gap
Experts believe aggregating content and feeding it to user cohorts won’t be enough. "Globally telcos are becoming content companies," says an analyst who does not want to be named. "They [Airtel] are distributing content, but how will they monetise it? Just by aggregating, how will they differentiate themselves from DTH players?"
He also questions Airtel’s lack of hiring from global companies where content experts have worked on the growth curve that India is witnessing now.But Batra’s team of 120 are not usual hires either. The telco says it has recruited them after testing their problem-solving skills with live case studies and coding challenges and shortlisting them via hackathons.
"My code can impact millions," says Sahil Ajmani of Airtel TV, "and this team is like a startup inside Airtel."
Hired from a flight-ticketing company in 2016, the 24-year-old software engineer says he had to go through multiple hackathons, which included coding tests to create a feature for extracting the most popular songs based on a day’s consumption.
Cracking monetisation
Companies including Airtel are toggling with ways of monetising and testing out the model that can pamper customers the most.
In music, Airtel has a model that combines both subscription and advertising. Airtel TV is currently offered free to Airtel customers but eventually some form of monetisation will be introduced. The free membership was recently extended till December 2018.
"The true test is in becoming a differentiated and superior product in the eyes of our customers," says Batra. "While revenue generation is the eventual goal for every player, right now all of them are experimenting. We feel it's still a nascent market, and we are focused on driving growth."
While Airtel TV is available only to the telco's customers, Wynk Music, like any other over-the-top (OTT) app, is open to access. The company claims it has a healthy mix of Airtel and non-Airtel users.
Headwinds outside telecom
However, the competition for Airtel's content team isn’t limited to telcos. There are the likes of Netflix and Amazon, who are tweaking their subscription rates to deepen their penetration in the Indian video-streaming market.
When Airtel Payments Bank, Wynk Music, and Airtel TV come together
in a bundle, it impacts customer stickiness favourably.Sameer Batra, CEO, content and apps, Bharti Airtel
In a clogged market of
music streaming apps, four-year-old Wynk is competing with likes of Gaana*,
besides music apps of other operators.
"Currently less than 10% of India’s population is consuming legit music on digital platforms," says Prashan Agarwal, CEO of Gaana. "With increased connectivity and low data prices, the music-streaming industry will grow to 400 million customers in the next three to four years."
The app has crossed 100 million downloads across Android and iOS platforms, gets more than 65 million monthly active users, and more than 1.8 billion monthly streams. In an e-mail reply to questions, Agarwal says Gaana is trying to focus on exclusive and original content with an eye on regional markets, partnering with artistes, and making the content and interface more personalised.
To improve engagement with the music industry, Airtel too is providing feedback to artistes on their work and impact on their audience. It recently overhauled its apps to improve user interface (UI) and user experience to keep up with smartphone upgrades and adoption.
"Apart from an all-new UI, music discovery and in-app navigation have become extremely simple. We have also added features like 'follow', 'playlist sharing', and a degree of social interaction within the app itself," says Airtel's Batra. "We have been receiving great feedback on 'one-touch radio', in which smart algorithms help line up your favourite songs based on intelligent analysis of your past listening experience. Plus, our one-time sign-up process adds great convenience to the overall user experience."
Moving to the next level
"We are currently focusing on developing in-house product R&D infrastructure instead of making hasty acquisitions. We have the capability and the product roadmap and would like to be consistent with that," says Batra.
Currently, the top three players — Airtel, Jio, and Vodafone-Idea — are
"Currently less than 10% of India’s population is consuming legit music on digital platforms," says Prashan Agarwal, CEO of Gaana. "With increased connectivity and low data prices, the music-streaming industry will grow to 400 million customers in the next three to four years."
The app has crossed 100 million downloads across Android and iOS platforms, gets more than 65 million monthly active users, and more than 1.8 billion monthly streams. In an e-mail reply to questions, Agarwal says Gaana is trying to focus on exclusive and original content with an eye on regional markets, partnering with artistes, and making the content and interface more personalised.
To improve engagement with the music industry, Airtel too is providing feedback to artistes on their work and impact on their audience. It recently overhauled its apps to improve user interface (UI) and user experience to keep up with smartphone upgrades and adoption.
"Apart from an all-new UI, music discovery and in-app navigation have become extremely simple. We have also added features like 'follow', 'playlist sharing', and a degree of social interaction within the app itself," says Airtel's Batra. "We have been receiving great feedback on 'one-touch radio', in which smart algorithms help line up your favourite songs based on intelligent analysis of your past listening experience. Plus, our one-time sign-up process adds great convenience to the overall user experience."
Moving to the next level
"We are currently focusing on developing in-house product R&D infrastructure instead of making hasty acquisitions. We have the capability and the product roadmap and would like to be consistent with that," says Batra.
Currently, the top three players — Airtel, Jio, and Vodafone-Idea — are
§ Scrambling
for subscribers who will buy the 120 million-130 million smartphones that will
get shipped this year
§ Rolling
out 4G to ensure data gets transmitted at high speed.
The content team at
Airtel is already chalking out the newer areas where it can play a part.
"Healthcare and education are the big areas," says Batra. "We
have customer relationships and distribution and physical infrastructure, and
want to make a big societal impact."
Disclaimer: Gaana is a company of Times Internet, which also owns ET Prime. Times Internet also owns MX Player, a video-streaming platform.
Disclaimer: Gaana is a company of Times Internet, which also owns ET Prime. Times Internet also owns MX Player, a video-streaming platform.
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