DTH
Tata Sky Binge+ customers to get access to premium ZEE5 content
KOLKATA: The bouquet of content offerings on Tata Sky Binge+ got a major thrust as Tata Sky extended its partnership withZEE5, for its Android enabled smart Set-top box that provides content from linear Live Television and a host of OTT apps onto a TV. Designed to provide smart and endless choice of entertainment for the entire family, Tata Sky Binge+ is now ready to enthral its subscribers with ZEE5’s expansive Bollywood and multilanguage films and original content spanning over 125,000+ hours across 12 languages – English, Hindi, Bengali, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi, Oriya, Bhojpuri, Gujarati and Punjabi. This is an addition to what is already available on the platform – an enviable selection of multi-lingual films, original dramas, international blockbuster movies and reality shows from India’s premium OTT platforms including Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ Hotstar Premuim, SunNxt, Hungama Play, Eros Now and ShemarooMe.
Commenting on the partnership, a Tata Sky spokesperson said, “OTT apps are gaining ground as a popular medium of content consumption. Considering the stupendous response we have received from the viewers for the fully integrated Tata Sky Binge+ set-top box, we are now strengthening this offering further by bringing onboard ZEE5’s unmatched content library that will further elevate the content viewing experience for our subscribers. We are confident that the Tata Sky Binge+ Smart set top box will offer a seamless experience of live TV channels and apps such as ZEE5, making it a winning proposition for our customers.”
Talking about the collaboration a ZEE5 Spokesperson stated, “ZEE5 is continuously working towards offering bespoke content for diverse consumer taste clusters across India. As part of this journey, partnering with Tata Sky reinforces our commitment to democratise content by truly providing a Super-app experience for consumers anytime, anywhere. We are happy to extend our partnership with Tata Sky on their new initiative Tata Sky Binge+ Smart set top box. We are certain that with Tata Sky’s reach and ZEE5’s extensive library of content across languages, we will be able to provide consumers with an enriching and engaging content viewing experience.”
Tata Sky Binge+ hosts many advanced features. It enables viewers to play any show, movie, music, game on their laptop, tablet or mobile phone and watch-it-directly on their TV with its in-built Chromecast. It also includes Google Assistant that makes discovering content easy with voice search. Customers can access 5000+ on the Google Play store. It is compatible with all types of TVs including 4K, HD LED, LCD, or plasma technology as it supports HDMI output and can also be connected to older TV sets over audio and video cable.
Tata Sky Binge+ provides the benefit of six months subscription to Tata Sky Binge where a user can watch content from premium partner apps on their STBs including 7 days of missed shows (based on linear entitlement) and access to 3 months Amazon Prime subscription all included at an offer of Rs.3999/-.
DTH
Prasar Bharati’s WAVES earns Rs 2.9 crore in first year
Platform scales content, users but monetisation gaps limit revenue growth.
MUMBAI: Big waves, small ripples at least for now. When Prasar Bharati launched its OTT platform WAVES at the 55th International Film Festival of India in November 2024, it pitched a bold vision: a homegrown rival to global and domestic streaming giants, blending video, audio, gaming and commerce into a single digital ecosystem. Five months into FY2024–25, however, the platform’s revenue stands at just Rs 2.90 crore, a figure that underscores the gap between ambition and monetisation.
On paper, WAVES looks anything but modest. The platform has ingested 13,608 titles, totalling 9,495 hours of content, with over 13,000 titles already live. It has streamed more than 575 live events from the Mahakumbh Amrit Snan and the 76th Republic Day parade to the Hockey India League, Kabaddi World Cup and Mann Ki Baat while offering 74 live TV channels and 12 radio channels. With over 10 lakh registered users and more than 200 content partners onboarded, the scale resembles that of a fully operational streaming service rather than a pilot project.
The architecture supporting this scale is equally robust. Built under Prasar Bharati’s Central Archives vertical, WAVES runs on a cloud-based infrastructure with DRM, encryption and an integrated analytics dashboard. It includes dedicated units for content ingestion, quality control, publishing, graphics, marketing and billing, and is distributed across platforms such as OTTplay, Tata Play and BSNL. The offering extends beyond video to include audio-on-demand, e-games and even e-commerce via ONDC integration.
Yet, the numbers reveal a core disconnect. Despite its scale, WAVES generated just Rs 2.90 crore in a market where India’s OTT industry crossed Rs 23,000 crore in 2024. A key bottleneck lies in monetisation infrastructure: subscriptions cannot currently be purchased within the app and must be completed via an external website. In a mobile-first country where over 95 per cent of OTT consumption happens on smartphones, this extra step creates friction that most users are unlikely to overcome.
Ironically, content is not the problem, it is the platform’s biggest strength. Prasar Bharati holds one of the world’s richest broadcast archives, including 45,154 hours of digitised Akashvani programming and 35,723 hours from Doordarshan. For WAVES alone, over 3,800 hours of archival content have been made OTT-ready, including classics such as Ramayan and Shaktimaan, alongside rare cultural recordings and historical broadcasts.
There are early signs that this library holds commercial potential. Revenue from archival content licensing rose sharply to Rs 3.38 crore in FY24, up from Rs 67 lakh the previous year. Meanwhile, free digital platforms continue to drive massive reach, the PB Archives Youtube channel clocked 119.78 million views and added 4,02,000 subscribers in FY2024–25, crossing 1.7 million in total, while DD News has over 5.84 million subscribers.
That, however, presents a strategic dilemma. While free distribution builds scale, it also conditions audiences to expect content at zero cost making it harder to transition to paid models. WAVES, designed as a hybrid AVOD-SVOD platform with advertising and subscription layers, is yet to fully crack this balance.
The broader challenge is not technological but strategic. In an ecosystem dominated by platforms offering seamless payments, aggressive pricing and high-budget originals, WAVES is still bridging the gap between being a content repository and a commercially viable product.
For now, the platform reflects both promise and paradox. It has the scale, the content and the infrastructure but until monetisation catches up, WAVES remains less a revenue engine and more a digital showcase of what India’s public broadcaster could become.
