After luring customers with attractive tariff plans, the next big thing from India's top four telecom operators in digital content. Reliance Jio started its operations in 2016 not only as a telecom operator, but also a digital content provider with services such as JioCinema, JioTV, JioMusic, etc.
Back then, the Mukesh Ambani-led company used to be the leader in the content segment, but the top three telecom operators- Airtel, Vodafone, and Idea Cellular partnered with various content providers to battle against the new entrant. Live TV is one of the content service, which customers have been asking for.
With this service, you can watch the content screening on your television wherever you're from your smartphone. So, Reliance Jio has JioTV- its standalone service for Live TV. And the big telecom operators jumped on the bandwagon in early 2017.
Airtel now has Airtel TV, Vodafone has Vodafone Play, while Idea Cellular has Idea Movies & TV. That said, the top four telecom operators are battling against each other in the content space. However, Reliance Jio still has the upper hand even with the JioTV application offering over 500 Live TV channels. Where does the other telecom operators stand when compared to Reliance JioTV? Let's find out.
Reliance JioTV
Firstly, let' speak about Reliance JioTV. The newcomer is offering 527 Live TV channels right now. The content is being provided in almost all the Indian languages with Hindi leading the way with 170 channels, followed by English and Telugu with 76 and 58 channels respectively.
Reliance JioTV offers 60+ HD channels, which you need to subscribe separately on your DTH service. The channels are spread across 10 genres and 15 languages.
Airtel TV
Speaking about Airtel TV, the leading telecom operator is trying hard to stay in the contention. Currently, Airtel TV has 149 Live TV channels, and with the latest update, the operator has made the service free for all Airtel customers.
As of date, Airtel TV offers content in 13 languages with Hindi leading the chart with the most number of channels. Airtel TV also provides HD Live TV channels, although, the service has just 10 HD channels currently. Clearly, Airtel has a long way to go.
Vodafone Play
Vodafone recently rolled out the Live TV service, but the company stands next to Reliance Jio with over 300 Live TV channels as of date. Vodafone has been aggressively partnering with content providers to provide more content to its customers.
Like the other two operators, Vodafone also offers content in Indian regional languages, and currently, the operator has Live TV channels in 15 Indian languages such as Telugu, Hindi, Malayalam, etc. Sadly, Vodafone doesn't offer any HD Live TV channels though.
Idea Movies & TV
Lastly, we have Idea Cellular's Live TV service, which currently has over 200 channels. Idea also offers content in 10+ Indian languages such as Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Punjabi, Odia, Gujarati, Marathi, Bhojpuri, Bengali etc. Idea currently is not offering HD channels like Vodafone.
Having said that, all the operators are providing an option to watch the content from the previous seven days. All said, Reliance Jio is still the leader when it comes to Live TV segment, but Vodafone is slowly catching up the new entrant and might offer more than 500+ channels in the next two months.
Which Live TV service do you prefer? Let us know by commenting below.
