Prasar Bharati CEO confirms YouTube style uploads, subscription plans on WAVES OTT

New Delhi: Prasar Bharati is getting ready to launch what could become the country’s first government-backed alternative to platforms like YouTube.

WAVES, India’s public broadcaster-backed OTT platform, will soon let creators upload videos directly through a faceless, transparent submission system, Gaurav Dwivedi, the public broadcaster’s CEO, confirmed.

In an exclusive interaction with BestMediaInfo.com, Dwivedi said, “We hope to have it ready by the middle of next month, around the third or fourth week. In any case, we will launch it by the end of September.” 

Unlike global private platforms, the WAVES OTT model will operate under a public service mandate, keeping most content free while giving equal access to creators regardless of scale or reach.

The plan, first reported by BestMediaInfo.com, is aimed at opening the doors to everyone, from food vloggers and educators to independent filmmakers, without the need for intermediaries or prior industry connections.

A platform open to all

Unlike most OTT platforms, the upcoming system will be “completely open” to anyone with content to share. “Our role as a public service broadcaster means that we should be allowing access and space to content creators of all kinds. Right now, there is no Indian platform which allows them to do so. People go on YouTube, but that is not our platform,” Dwivedi explained.

The process will be straightforward. Creators will upload content directly to Prasar Bharati’s servers. A moderation team will review submissions for compliance, and the best entries will be published on WAVES OTT for viewers nationwide. 

Dwivedi added, “It’s a semi-moderated kind of a system where people can upload their content directly onto our servers, and then we will select the best content out of that and take it onto our platform for users to watch.”

“Our attempt is to create a platform for our creators,” Dwivedi told BestMediaInfo,com, noting the non-existence of such open-access Indian platforms. The move aligns with the government’s push for indigenous content creation in recent years.

Monetisation model

The content onboarding feature will operate on an AVOD (advertising-based video-on-demand) model. “The more the content will run, the more the ads will run,” Dwivedi said.

WAVES OTT also offers subscription options, as reported by BestMediaInfo.com, though Dwivedi emphasised that free content will dominate. 

He stated, “Basic services like TV channels, radio, videos, all our reading material, all these things are free. For our partner content, in some cases, it is available free of charge where they have agreed to provide it for free. In some cases, the premium content is available behind a small subscription.”

According to Dwivedi, “more than 90% of the content available is free,” with premium offerings deliberately kept minimal to serve the broadcaster’s public service mandate.

A govt-backed YouTube in the making?

Prasar Bharati’s aim is clear. It is to provide a homegrown space where creators can freely upload and monetise their work, without relying on foreign-owned platforms. “There is no Indian platform which allows creators to do so,” Dwivedi said. 

By removing barriers to entry and evaluating content without bias, the broadcaster hopes to attract a broad spectrum of voices, genres and formats.

The formal announcement is expected around Independence Day, with the feature going live by the end of September. If successful, the initiative could give Indian creators a government-backed alternative to global platforms, potentially changing how local talent is discovered and monetised in the digital space.