Bharti Airtel has announced Airtel Xstream Stick and Xstream 4K Box for its home consumers ahead of the commercial rollout of Reliance Jio Fiber in India. With its Xstream service, Airtel aims to provide a single platform for all the entertainment needs of the user.
Airtel Xstream is a combination of satellite TV channels, major OTT (Over-The-Top) services, music streaming and gaming. This is somewhat similar to how Reliance had positioned its Jio Fiber service during its AGM 2019 held last month.
The two devices-- Xstream Stick and Xstream 4K Hybrid Box are feature-loaded to make any TV that has an HDMI port, a smart television.
Adarsh Nair, Chief Product Officer, Bharti Airtel said: “Airtel Xstream will cater to needs of a new generation of consumers who are looking for seamless and converged entertainment across multiple screens at home and on the go.”
Airtel Xstream is an upgrade to the telecom operators existing Airtel TV app and customers can download the Xstream app from Play Store or App Store to watch Xstream library on their smartphones. The service is also available on the web and customers need to log into Airtel Xstream site to watch movies, shows and live TV.
Airtel Xstream 4K Box features, pricing & availability
Airtel Xstream 4K Hybrid Box is essentially a set-top-box powered by Android 9.0 Pie and will relay both, satellite television channels and OTT services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, to the big screen in your home.
Airtel is offering access to 500+ broadcast channels, Xstream app which has a catalog of 10,000+ movies and TV shows, Airtel Store app, Wynk Music with 6 million songs and Google Play Store service. The latter means that one can download and install apps from the Play Store like Netflix, Prime Video, Hotstar among others. Users will also be able to play games available on Airtel Store on their television screens using their smartphone as a gamepad.
The 4K Box comes built-in with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Chromecast in addition to a remote which has dedicated buttons for Google Assistant, Netflix, YouTube, Prime Video and Google Search. Alternatively, customers will be able to control the set-top-box from their smartphones.
Airtel Xstream 4K Hybrid Box is priced at Rs 3,999 and as part of the launch offer, comes with an annual subscription of Xstream app and a month of HD DTH pack.
If you're an existing Airtel Digital TV customer, you can upgrade to Airtel Xstream Box at a discounted price of Rs 2,249.
Airtel Xstream Box is available to purchase from Airtel Store, Flipkart, Amazon India and for major offline electronic retail stores across India.
Airtel Xstream Stick features, pricing & availability
Airtel Xstream Stick is an Android 8.0 Oreo-based plug and play device for customers which runs the Xstream app in addition to the Google Play Store app catalog. The Xstream stick does not offer broadcast TV service as the 4K set-top-box and is dependent on the content provided by Xstream app.
The Xstream app boasts of over 10,000 movies and TV shows from OTT platforms like ZEE5, Hooq, Hoi Choi, Eros Now, HungamaPlay, ShemarooMe, Ultra and Curiosity Stream.
Airtel Xstream Stick comes built-in with Chromecast and Bluetooth 4.2. The accompanying remote isn't as versatile as the one provided with the Xstream 4K Box but features a dedicated button for Netflix and Google Assistant.
The Airtel Xstream Stick is priced at Rs 3,999 and is available online exclusively on Flipkart. It can also be purchased from Airtel Stores and top electronics stores like Croma across India.
As part of the launch offer, Airtel Thanks Platinum and Gold customers are eligible for complimentary access to Xstream app subscription. Though, regular users will only get a month's worth of free access to the app and need to shell an additional Rs 999 annual subscription fees.
