The Indian government has its own alternatives for many digital services that are generally run by private companies — for every Google Pay and PhonePe, the government has a BHIM app, and for every Jio and Airtel the government has a BSNL . But the government now seems to be eyeing another area that was once the preserve of private players.
The Indian government has launched its own OTT platform. Named Waves, the portal was launched by state broadcaster Prasar Bharti. Waves already has over a million downloads on the Play Store.
Waves is much like any other OTT platform. It has content in 12+ languages and across 10 genres. Waves provides live TV streaming and access to more than 65 channels. To top it off, Waves also has games, which Netflix has introduced in recent months, and even a shopping experience through the government’s ONDC network.
Waves’s catalog consists of many shows that were broadcast on Doordarshan in the years gone by, including Ramayan, Mahabharat, and Shaktiman. There’s also new content, such as Fauji 2.0, which is a remake of Shah Rukh Khan’s original show from the 1990s. Waves will have some sports content too, and stream the US Premier cricket league.
And being a government-run platform will give Waves some exclusives as well. It’ll stream films made by FTII students and students from other top filmmaking schools. It’ll have also rare NFDC (National Film Development Corporation) films, as well as historical archive footage of the Indian government. The platform will host shows for the public good, including a show on how to steer clear of cyber crime, and another documentary on the functioning of the Superme Court. For a dash of culture, the platform will livestream aartis from the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya.
It’s not as though Waves will look to disrupt Neflix and Amazon Prime, or get users to switch fully to its services, but it’ll be a much-needed addition to India’s overall OTT space. Unlike other platforms, Waves is free, and will provide consumers with a wide variety of content. This content should not only complement the content on private OTT platforms, but will also keep them on their toes — when Jio and Airtel raised their tariffs in unison, lakhs of customers had ported to government-run BSNL which hadn’t raised prices. And having a government-run OTT could not only provide consumers more entertainment options, but also give them an alternative to the many private OTT players that exist today.