One subscription for every OTT app: what actually exists in India

Start with the real prices. Most apps have a cheap phone-only plan, a full plan for TVs, and an annual option that cuts the monthly cost. Netflix is the exception, with monthly billing only.

Add up a typical household's apps at monthly prices and the total climbs fast. Annual plans, bundles and splitting each chip away at a different part of it. Few people need all six every month, which is the first saving.

Jio, Airtel and Vi sell prepaid and postpaid packs that include one or more OTT apps, and broadband providers do the same; ACT Fibernet, for example, has bundled Netflix Basic with selected long-term plans. These are the closest thing to an official "all-in-one OTT subscription", and they can be good value if you needed the recharge anyway.

Before you switch, check which tier of each app is included, whether the app subscription lasts as long as the recharge, and how to activate it. Compare current packs on our Jio recharge plans, Airtel recharge plans and Vi 5G plans pages.

OTTplay sells packs that unlock several partner apps, such as SonyLIV, ZEE5 and regional services, with packs from ₹99 a month per its app listing; see OTTplay plans. Times Prime, at ₹1,299 a year, currently includes six months of JioHotstar Super and six months of Google One among other benefits; see Times Prime membership.

Neither covers Netflix, and partner tiers vary. Treat them as a way to get several mid-sized apps cheaply, then add the big one you can't live without.

The biggest savings come from changing how you subscribe, not from finding a magic bundle. Avoid sellers offering "cheap subscriptions" to several apps at once; those are usually shared logins that stop working. Subspace groups for Netflix, JioHotstar, SonyLIV, ZEE5, YouTube Premium and others show the per-member price up front on each service page, and each provider's own household or family rules still apply.