BSNL has finally jumped into the OTT content space by launching the BSNL TV mobile app to prepaid customers. Private telcos Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Reliance Jio, have been offering their own OTT apps for a while now, but BSNL has joined the list a bit late. BSNL TV will be available only to the prepaid customers and the company says the app will offer unlimited Music, Movies, Crime files in various regional languages. BSNL TV subscription can be availed with six prepaid STVs- STV 97, STV 365, STV 399, STV 997, STV 998 and STV 1999. And the app will function in all the circles where BSNL has operations, subject if you choose the correct STV from the list mentioned above.
BSNL TV: Eligible STVs, Content and Available Circles Detailed
Aforementioned, BSNL TV will be available only to the company's prepaid customers for now and the reason behind the omission of postpaid subscribers is not known at the moment. Another thing worth noting is the app lacks Live TV service, which is underwhelming. So the app will just work as a Video-on-Demand service.
Moving onto other details, BSNL is bundling the BSNL TV subscription with six prepaid STVs and they are STV 97, STV 365, STV 399, STV 997, STV 998 and STV 1999. The STV 1999 was introduced recently and it offers benefits like 3GB daily data, 100 SMSes per day, 250 minutes of voice calling every day and BSNL TV subscription for 425 days until January 31, 2020.
The telco says the app will offer content in various languages- Punjabi, Bhojpuri, Rajasthani, Hindi, Odiya, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Bengali and Haryanavi. Having said that, BSNL will continue to add content in the coming days. Sadly, there's no English content available right now. Also, BSNL confirmed the app is developed by Lokdhun Telemedia Pvt. Ltd, which is the reason behind the omission of English content for now as Lokdhun focusses on regional content only.
BSNL TV app can be used in any circle if the user recharges with the correct STV.
How to Install and Log into BSNL TV App
BSNL TV app is available for free on Google Play Store and it weighs just over 2.1MB in size. When you subscribe from any of the STVs mentioned above on BSNL network, you shall be eligible to access the BSNL TV content. After the successful recharge, BSNL will send you an SMS with a user name and OTP (as password) to access the BSNL TV app. That said, the telco confirmed that your mobile number is generally the user name and password will be delivered via the SMS.
After receiving the SMS, fire up the BSNL TV app and enter the credentials as given to you. On the first login, the app will ask you to set a preferred password, but you can skip and continue with the one-time password provided via SMS. Once the login finishes, you can select the language and watch the content for free.
Sadly, BSNL TV app is still in early stages of development, and at times, it's not even allowing us to watch the content. BSNL says the content will vary if a user changes the preferred language; In our case, we have changed the preferred language several times, but only Punjabi content has been shown inside the app. BSNL TV app may get better with time, but the company should bring content from other OTT services as well to gain some recognition in the market.
