It looks like Google is finally taking India seriously as a consumer market. Today Google unveiled a double treat for users. First was making movies available on Google Play and also making movies made available on rental with YouTube.
Google Play has started listing local movies that can be downloaded for Indian users. I saw that a quick search of Hindi movies brought about a few popular movies that can be purchased.
Mostly the prices are lower for older movies while newer ones are expensive. Foreign language movies are even more expensive.
This move comes on the heels of Google Play listing Nexus 7 available in India. It had already started selling books on Google Play for users.
So was not surprise that Google Play has started renting out movies.
Link: Google Play – Movies
YouTube Movie Rentals
The movies are up for rental on YouTube with their new featured channels that allow Indian users to not just stream full length movies free but also rent them online. This option of renting movies is newly introduced in India. The listings and pricing seems similar to Google Play movies.
Link: YouTube Movies
What is in store for the future?
Apple has already launched Apple TV in India. I can see Google now is preparing the ground for something similar. It is reasonable to expect Google TV being made available in India at some point of time.
Though one major drawback in India are broadband speeds are not exactly blazing fast all over but if more people rented movies online, ISPs will see an opportunity to improve broadband speeds.
Bonus Tip: If you are having trouble using or registering your bank card to buy apps, books and movies on Google Play, check our guide on using Entropay’s virtual credit card.
2 Comments
Seems like great start-up, will love to watch movies this way, even this will be da easiest way to watch movies for people who are outside of there countries 🙂
The first Bollywood film I ever saw was Enthiran, at a film festival in San Jose, CA. They were talking about how difficult it was to break into the mainstream American market with an Indian movie, and how they one day hoped to get the same marketshare and popularity that Anime and other Japanese-based cinema had in the United States. Only a few years later, and now we can legally watch Bollywood films online anytime; what an incredible change.