Recently, the most popular movies and event booking platform in India, BookMyShow launched its video-on-demand platform called BookMyShow Stream. The concept is to let users rent premium content they are interested in instead of having to pay a monthly or annual subscription fee. Taking a leaf out of BookMyShow’s book, Vi has started offering rental content on its own Vi Movies & TV app.
Also read: Vi is offering 3GB data to select users of Rs 249, Rs 399, and Rs 599 prepaid plans
Notably, the concept is not new in India, Google and Apple have been offering rentals on the Play Store and Apple TV, respectively. BookMyShow Stream was the first exclusive video-on-demand platform, whereas the initiative by Vi is the first for any telco in the country. Let’s take a look at all details of the new rental service by Vi.
Vi Movies and TV app now lets users rent premium content
Vi now lets users rent premium movies on Vi Movies & TV app
Vi Movies & TV app is the telecom operator’s in-house streaming app along the lines of Airtel’s Xstream and Jio’s JioTV. Vi users could stream live TV shows and other original content on the app free of cost. Now, the telecom operator has partnered with Hungama Digital Media Entertainment to offer premium video on demand (PVOD) services to its users.
The new model will allow users to watch premium movies, which they can then watch in the language of their choice including English, Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu. Currently, the app lets users watch a title as many times as they want within 48 hours from the time of renting.
Prior to this, Vi users could watch content on the app at no extra cost as per their prepaid recharge or postpaid plans. Now, the users will have the option to pay for the premium content they want to watch, in the language of their choice. Unfortunately, there’s no option for a one-time purchase as of now.
Vi Movies and TV app: how to rent movies
Renting movies on Vi Movies and TV app is a fairly simple process. Follow the steps below to rent a movie on your app.
- Download Vi Movies & TV app from the Play Store or App Store
- Open and click on any title on the homepage
- You’ll be asked to provide your Vi number and do OTP verification
- Once verified, click on any premium movie you want to rent
- Click on ‘Rent for Rs 60/120’ button
For postpaid users, the rent will be added to the next postpaid bill and prepaid users will have to pay using their preferred mode.
Vi Movies and TV vs BookMyShow Stream: popular content
As mentioned before, Vi has partnered with Hungama Digital Media Entertainment to offer premium movies to its users. As part of this tie-up, Vi Movies and TV app now offers access to over 380 movie titles including the latest blockbusters from DC like Joker, Birds of Prey, SCOOB, Aquaman, and Christopher Nolan’s Tenet.
On the other hand, BookMyShow Stream has a catalog of 600 movie titles and 72,000+ hours of content on its platform. BookMyShow has partnered with leading productions like Sony Pictures, Warner Brothers, Universal Pictures, Shemaroo, Viacom18, and Rajshri Productions among others.
BookMyShow Stream users can explore categories like Friday Premiers, Exclusive, World Cinema, Missed in Theatre, and Festival Favourites. Some of the popular content include Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, Gal Gaddot starer Wonder Woman 1984, The Peanut Butter Falcon, Alone, The Craft Legacy, and Les Miserables.
Vi Movies and TV vs BookMyShow Stream: price in India
Both Vi Movies and TV app and BookMyShow Stream offer pay-per-view streaming model and there’s no set pricing for them. The pricing for renting content varies from title to title. In Vi Movies and TV app, premium movies can be rented at Rs 60 with more recent titles like Tenet and SCOOB priced at Rs 120.
Rents on BookMyShow Stream start from as little as Rs 40, and the platform also allows users to purchase the titles available. On BookMyShow Stream, Tenet costs Rs 689 while Wonder Woman 1984 is priced at Rs 799 or can be rented for Rs 499.