MUMBAI: State owned telecom operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and over-the-top (OTT) platform YuppTV have entered into a partnership. Under the signed memorandum of understanding (MoU), Yupp TV content will be made available to both BSNL mobile broadband and fixed line users.

“BSNL has 120 million users. Yupp brings content on global scale. We will work on a very unique proposition to bring highly rich experience to customer on strong technology backbone. Marriage between infotainment and telecom networks will happen," BSNL chairman and managing director P K Purwar said at the MoU signing ceremony, Mint reported.

All the major telecom players including Reliance Jio, Airtel, Vodafone Idea have struck deals with almost all major streaming services for betterment of average revenue per user (ARPU). Telco-OTT partnerships have been a noticeable trend not only in India but across the world as it makes a win-win deal for both the parties. Till now, OTT players in India get the largest chunk of subscription revenue from telco deals.

Purwar said during the ceremony that content is key to drive data consumption and original content is the game of the day. He also added that the bundling proposition will be a compelling one for BSNL subscribers.

At a time when the once telco king of India is struggling hard to run its operation, this deal marks a move by the public sector unit to retain and grow its subscriber base as the company has been making losses continuously since 2009-10. However, it will also help YuppTV to deliver its content easily to BSNL’s 120 million subscribers.