Indian government has recently announced a lockdown in the entire country to curb the spread of coronavirus. With this, everyone is ordered to stay at home and practice social distancing. If you are getting bored staying at home, then it’s the perfect time to catch up some movies, binge-watch TV shows or watch some awesome documentaries.
There are numerous media streaming services in the Indian market and if you are new to this, it could be a bit confusion to select the one you want to opt for. But don’t worry. We’ve curated a list of best five media streaming platforms in India, saving you a lot of time to filter them. Here’s the list.
Netflix
Netflix is one of the most popular media streaming service provider not only in India but globally. Apart from a library of movies and TV shows from across the world, the company has also invested heavily on original programming and has some of the best content to watch.
In India, the pricing for Netflix starts at ₹199 which is limited to only one screen and mobile-only usage and it goes up to ₹799 in which user can stream to four screen simultaneously with UHD resolution.
Amazon Prime Video
The video streaming platform from the global online retail giant Amazon, dubbed as Amazon Prime Video, is offered as a part of Prime membership service which also includes several benefits on Amazon.com as well as access to Amazon Prime Music.
Prime Video is doing much better in the Indian market and thus, the company has planned to double down on investing to grow the platform in India. It is much cheaper compared to Netflix, with yearly subscription costing just ₹999 while the monthly subscription costs ₹129.
Hotstar
The Disney-owned OTT platform is currently the leading streaming service in the Indian market with more than 400 million monthly active users. The rise in its usage can be attributed to the live sports offering, especially cricket and IPL.
Hotstar is also offering access to some of the best global TV shows such as Game of Thrones among other HBO shows. While some of the content is behind the paywall, it is also offering tons of content without having to purchase subscription plan.
The platform was going to be rebranded as Disney+ Hotstar after the launch of Disney+ in the Indian market on 29th March. However, the launch has been postponed as the Indian Premier League (IPL), the USP of the platform, has been postponed because of the coronavirus outbreak.
If you want access to premium content on the platform, the yearly cost of Hotstar Premium is ₹999 while the monthly subscription is available for ₹299 per month. There’s also Hotstar VIP priced at ₹365 per year with limited content.
ZEE5
Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL) has launched its own over-the-top video streaming platform called ZEE5 that offers Indian and international movies and TV shows, music, live TV, and health and lifestyle content.
Apart from offering content in Indian languages, the platform also has an impressive collection of premium TV series from across the globe, including Turkish, Korean and Spanish shows in HD, exclusively available in Hindi.
With LIVE TV on-the-go, users can choose from over 90 live TV channels and enjoy Hindi, English and Regional GECs, movie channels, News channels and Kids channels. Its pricing for the premium version is ₹99 per month but the company runs special offer every now and then.
Other Notable Services
While these are the top four platforms to get valuable content, India is home to several media streaming platforms. The list is rather big but we are listing a few notable services here. Take a look.
- Sony LIV
- Voot
- Apple TV+
- JioTV
- MX Player
- Eros Now
- Airtel Xstream
- Hooq
- Vie
