Idea Cellular has been in the news for its supposed merger talks with Vodafone in India this week, but that’s not the only thing worth talking about the telecom operator. Idea has set its eyes on becoming a digital content provider à la Reliance Jio, with its own suite of music, movie and gaming apps.
Idea announced the Digital Idea initiative on Monday, which offers apps like Idea Music Lounge, Idea Movie Club and Idea Game Spark. These products directly compete with similar services offered by Reliance Jio, Airtel and Vodafone as well.
To spice things up, Idea confirmed that all users downloading the respective apps before 31 March 2017, get 90 days free access of the content. This is exactly when Jio’s free internet offer comes to a close. So, we decided to take a look at what’s on offer, and how different is it from the content that Jio’s Cinema and Music apps offer.
Idea Movie Club vs Jio Cinema
Idea Cellular is said to have partnered with Hungama and Eros Now for its movie catalogue. In addition to this, users can access a slew of Zee TV channels like Zee Studio and for news updates, you get Aaj Tak, part of India Today TV group.
There’s a good mix of movies, with Happy Bhaag Jayegi, Dishoom and Bajirao Mastani catching our eye. Other than that, you get Hollywood movies dubbed in Hindi, which highlights the user base that Idea caters to right now. There are multiple sections on the app, Movies, TV Shows, Ditto TV, Shorts and Kids.
Features-wise, Idea Movie Club is still in Beta mode, and we’re hopeful that options like save offline and download will be available in the coming weeks. (We managed to skip the sign-in part from our non-Idea number on the Android app.)
As informed by Idea, users will be charged Rs 49 per month to access Idea Movie Club. This gives you unlimited movies, videos and TV streaming. But as we mentioned above, if you download the app before 31 March 2017, you get 90 days of free access to the content.
Compared to Jio’s free services that last until the end of 2017, Idea’s catalogue needs to improve at a fast pace, and look for global content partners as well.
Idea Music Lounge vs Jio Music
(Note: we couldn’t sign in to the music app with our non-Idea number, which surprised us a bit).
Idea says that the music app offers up to 2 million Indian and International music tracks. They have plans to take that number to 20 million in the coming months. The app is only available on Android right now, with the iOS version on its way.
It’s got content in 13 different Indian languages, Bollywood, and tracks from International artists as well.
Features on Music Lounge
- Create music playlist
- DJ Mode enables transition of songs
- Wake up mode works as a alarm with your favourite track
- Dynamic lyrics lets users sing along with the track
Just like the Movie Club, you pay Rs 49 for the content available on this app, but if you download the app before 31 March 2017, you get 90 days free access.
While Idea has done a decent job with the music app, we’re yet to explore the music content on offer, but at least with its features, the Music Lounge has a upper hand over Jio Music. Having said that, Jio’s free services are applicable till 31 Dec 2017. So we know how that works out with Indian users already.
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