NEW DELHI: Buoyed by the growing popularity of WAVES, Prasar Bharati’s over-the-top (OTT) application, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting is set to write to television manufacturers, urging them to pre-install the app on smart TVs. Currently, most smart TVs come pre-loaded with major OTT apps such as Netflix, YouTube, and Amazon Prime Video.
It comes weeks after the Ministry of Communications mandated the pre-installation of the Sanchar Saathi app on all smartphones, but later withdrew the order following pushback from phone makers.
WAVES was launched in November 2024. It combines live TV, on-demand videos, radio, games, e-books, and e-commerce in a single platform. It has already made strong inroads, recording over 3.8 million downloads and 2.3 million registered users in less than a year. WAVES currently offers at least 65 channels, including 40 live services featuring news and entertainment networks, movies, TV shows, and games in ten languages, including Hindi, English, Marathi, Tamil, and Assamese.
The content includes classics from the Doordarshan and Akashvani archives, along with new programming available on the application. Prasar Bharati also recently invited licensed linear satellite TV channels to join its OTT under a revenue-sharing commercial framework.
With the objective of bringing quality content to WAVES, the public broadcaster introduced a Pay-Per-View Content Sourcing Policy in October.
International reach
Waves has a robust international presence with users in 181 countries, according to the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting. While India remains the leading market with over 4.2 million users, significant traction has been recorded in the USA, UK, UAE, Australia and France.