“The app is a convergence of the TV & mobile phone and its launch follows the success of Airtel Digital TV’s innovative offering of Twitter on TV which was the first ever global convergence of Twitter and TV,” Airtel Digital TV noted in a press release.
The app offers over 150 live television channels, which can be streamed on your Android smartphone or tablet. You will also have access to old programming on over 13 channels, so you will able to stream your favourite programs (some of them given the limited number of channels) even after the telecast date.
You can check out full set of features below:
- Live TV: Over 150 channels across popular genres
- Anytime TV: Watch past episodes on over 13 channels
- Video Library: Access to over 10,000 videos
- Adaptive streaming: App dynamically adjusts to the network bandwidth on your device
- Genre based UI: Filter channels by genre and view videos by genre
- Search: Find a channel by typing in the name
- Program Guide: Electronic program guide for one week in advance
- Recommendation Zone: Get top viewed, newly added and top rated content on the home screen
- Favourites: Set favorite channels for easy access
- Social Media Integration: Share the channel you are watching on Facebook
- Set Alarms: Set program reminders
How to get started:
Step 1: Download the airtel pocket TV app
Step 2: SMS ADD TV to 54325 from your registered mobile number
Step 3: Enter your customer ID or registered mobile number to register your device using the one-time activation password
Why not offer single subscription plans?
It is surprising how the DTH service providers are not offering single subscription plans, which integrate DTH access, streaming access on mobile devices and more. No consumer wants to pay several different subscription fees each month, this is simply bad user experience. We hope the other DTH service providers planning to launch similar apps will come up with such plans.
Update: As Sulabh Tandon of Airtel Digital TV points out in the comments, the subscription fee for the Pocket TV is deducted from the Airtel Digital TV account of the consumers, so the users won’t have to pay two different subscription plans and can just recharge their Airtel Digital TV account with monthly DTH charges + INR 60 for the Pocket TV.
Download Airtel Digital TV: Pocket TV app from Google Play
10 replies on “Airtel Digital TV launches Pocket TV streaming app for its subscribers”
But what about the data consumed during streaming? Can’t airtel offer some kind of data packs + pocket TV combos? So that I dont need to pay hefty amount for the data that is consumed ??!!
I am also thinking the same line…
It is a valid point and will also help Airtel as more users are likely to use the service if they are not worried about data charges.
I don’t understand the business model here. Pretty much everyone using this will watch it at home where there is wifi connectivity. If you have Airtel connection already then there is no point in paying 60 rupees more.
Also one more thing I observed is this app has 4.5 rating and every 5 star rating seems to be fishy reading the comments.
Dear Ravi,
So for example you have one TV in home on which your Dad is watching news… and you want to watch MTV roadies in the other room… what do you do?… well you could buy a new TV and a multl-connection… or simply use pocket TV to watch it on your mobile… 🙂
What about data charges during streaming channels. …is it free or it also consume data…..pls tell
Dear Gaurav,
It is only a top-up you need to add once to your Airtel Digital TV account, thereafter you will just need to recharge with your base pack price + Rs. 60 for Pocket TV… so if your base pack price is say Rs. 300 p.m. and you want to subscribe to Pcoket TV… then please start recharging with Rs. 360 that’s it… pretty simple isn’t it…
Thanks for the clarification. I have included it in the post.
The bad part of this is, the channels we get are not the one from the pack
Query 1 – Is it necessary to “Step 2: SMS ADD TV to 54325 from your registered mobile number” only…? If I want to download and see it on another phone, is it possible…? Can I give that Mobile No., which is not my Register Mb No…?
Query 2 – Suppose I am out of India, can I watch it from anywhere….?
Please clarify..