Prasar Bharati, India’s public broadcasting heavyweight, rolled out its streaming platform Waves on the Worldwide Movie Pageant of India (IFFI) in Goa, marking the state broadcaster’s entry into the nation’s aggressive streaming area.

The platform launches with a slate spanning 12+ languages and 10+ genres, that includes every thing from video-on-demand content material to free gaming, radio streaming, and 65 reside channels. In a bid to distinguish itself from current streamers, Waves additionally integrates e-commerce capabilities by way of a partnership with ONDC (Open Community for Digital Commerce).

“It’s certainly a momentous event for the Indian leisure business with the launch of Waves OTT,” mentioned Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on the launch occasion. “I’m very pleased to see the varied vary of content material on the platform, together with a bunch of movies and content material throughout languages together with Konkani.” In India and plenty of Asian nations, streaming can be referred to by the acronym OTT (Over The Prime).

The service’s preliminary content material slate options fantasy motion title “Monkey King the Hero is Again,” nationwide award winner “Fouja,” and Vipul Shah’s thriller collection “Bhed Bharam.” The lineup additionally consists of “Fauji 2.0,” a contemporary tackle the Eighties Shah Rukh Khan starrer, that includes Gauhar Khan and directed by Sandeep Singh. Household drama “Thode Door Thode Paas” starring Pankaj Kapoor, Kailash Kher’s music actuality present “Bharat ka Amrit Kalash,” and Oscar winner Guneet Monga Kapoor’s social affect movie “Kicking Balls” spherical out the marquee choices.

For youthful viewers, the platform presents animation programming together with “Doggy Journey,” “Chota Bheem,” “Tenaliram,” and “Akbar Birbal,” alongside video games like “Krishna Soar,” “Fruit Chef,” “Ram the Yodha,” and the U.S. Cricket Premier League match.

Prasar Bharati CEO Gaurav Dwivedi emphasised the platform’s concentrate on household viewing: “Waves brings a variety of content material for clear household viewing into each Indian house that may use this platform to observe, pay attention, learn, play, store in a curated atmosphere.”

The platform has secured partnerships with numerous content material suppliers, together with Lionsgate for video content material and a number of gaming firms equivalent to Mud Video games and Tag Labs. Instructional content material suppliers like PACE have joined to supply check prep tutorials.

Data & Broadcasting Secretary Sanjay Jaju positioned the launch inside India’s broader digital technique: “Waves OTT marks a big step within the Indian authorities’s Digital India imaginative and prescient. The excellent, inclusive and numerous OTT will bridge the digital media and leisure divide, on the again of its collaboration with BharatNet for final mile connectivity to rural viewers.”

The service will stream reside occasions, together with the Prabhu Shriram Lalla Aarti from Ayodhya and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s month-to-month “Mann ki Baat” handle.

Prasar Bharati chair Navneet Kumar Sehgal famous that Waves stands out as “one of many solely OTT networks which is your window to not solely the world of fresh household leisure but additionally to procuring, video games and information and present affairs for youths and youth.”

The platform’s content material acquisition technique, outlined in its 2024 coverage, targets city, metro, center India, and non-resident Indian audiences. Varied authorities ministries, together with Exterior Affairs, Finance, and Tradition, have contributed programming to the platform. The service may even characteristic content material from movie colleges like FTII and partnerships with Nationwide Creator awardees together with Kamiya Jani and Gaurav Chaudhary.