Netflix, Amazon Prime turn weapons in Indian telecom firms' freebie fight

Reliance Jio's new plan offers customers Netflix on a mobile device, one-year subscription to two over-the-top applications and access to Jio's movie and songs. library.

India’s telecom price war is back, and this time the battle is being fought with freebies.

After announcing the first tariff increase in three years in 2019, telecom carriers are offering incentives such as subscriptions to services from Netflix to Amazon Prime to win customers in a content-hungry market.

With theaters in India, among the biggest film markets globally by number of tickets sold, closed due to pandemic restrictions, the demand for entertainment content has shifted online. Several big-budget local films have been released on streaming platforms this year.

On Tuesday, Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd., the country’s biggest telecom company