Apple has partnered with India's leading telecom company, Airtel, by offering free access to Apple Music and Apple TV+ for its premium subscribers. This was a smart move to capture the price-sensitive Indian market. Competition is slowly heating up in the $28-billion entertainment industry. For its part, the tie-up is coming at a time when regulators are carrying out close scrutiny of the $8.5-billion merger between Reliance's and Walt Disney's Indian media assets.

Airtel Tuesday announced Apple TV+ would be provided on its premium WiFi and post-paid plans without extra charge, but did not reveal the financial elements of their agreement. Most programming on Apple TV+, in English, does not attract a large audience toward the streaming service in India, where it competes with Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ Hotstar, and billionaire Mukesh Ambani's JioCinema. The deal is part of Apple's push to aggressively expand its subscriber base by offering its services in combination with telecom plans.

Later this year, Apple TV+ and Apple Music are set to be included in the subscription of Airtel's best broadband and postpaid users. With the deal, Airtel will shut its music app Wynk, sources aware of the development said. Airtel currently has close to 281 million subscribers in India against an estimated 489 million subscribers of the closest rival Reliance Jio.