Should you get a SunNXT subscription?

Whether or not one should sign up for a new OTT subscription is probably a first world dilemma many have gone through in recent years. While each may have their own preferences and expectations from premium OTT platforms, some of the requirements/concerns are likely to be common. Does it have enough movies and shows to justify getting an annual plan or can you knock off the popular titles with a quarterly membership? Does it have a good mix of classics and new releases? Does it have movies of my favourite actor/filmmaker? Does it provide access to live channels and exclusive videos, apart from the catalogue? To answer these and other questions, here’s our review of SunNXT so that you can make an informed decision to sign up for a subscription.

SunNXT is... an Indian video on demand service run by Sun TV Network. It was launched in June 2017 with content in four languages: Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and in 2019, Bengali content was added on the platform. It offers a decent collection of movies, TV shows, live TV, comedy clips and music videos in the above mentioned languages. As of February 2020, it had a subscriber base of 15M and had 390 shows, 4087 movies and allowed live streaming of over 40 popular television channels including Sun TV, Sun Music and Adithya TV. Sign-in is required to view any content on the app. But comedy clips, select music videos etc. can be viewed for free without a subscription. SunNXT content is also available for free on JioCinema, Airtel Xstream and V! movies & TV.

Platforms supported: Android - Version 4.4 and above, iOS - Version 8 and above

Download and onboarding experience: The size of the Android app is 18 MB and the download and onboarding experience was smooth.

Subscription Plan:

The subscription plan for SunNXT is shown below:

What to expect:

The ‘Movies’ section has a discover section to quickly find movies based on genre. The popular movies that would qualify as a big draw for many include Ratsasan (Tamil), Anjaam Pathiraa (Malayalam), Pelli Choopulu (Telugu) and Rangi Taranga (Kannada). The ‘TV Shows’ section also has a ‘Popular Live Channels’ section and popular shows on the platform include Roja (Tamil), Bhagyarekha (Telugu), Swantham Sujatha (Malayalam) and Manasaare (Kannada). Do note, among channels, only ‘Sun News’ is provided for free and some TV shows are also available for free. Rewind Live TV upto three hours feature is also available.

The ‘Comedy’ section has comedy movies and shows across decades and comedy clips of top comedians and top stars(which are available for free) such as Vadivelu, Brahmanandam, Salim Kumar and Sadhu Kokila. The ‘Music Videos’ section has a lot of music videos and lyric videos, of which only some are free to watch. Curated content such as ‘Evergreen Collections’, ‘Super Hit Collections’, ‘Best of 2020’ etc. are also available on the platform.

Design and experience:

The design is simple and neat with multiple widgets in each section which makes it easier for the user to choose content. The ‘View All’ option for the widgets in the app provides more options to the user. Filters such as genre, actor, year – on the ‘View All’ results page makes content discovery easier and more convenient. I watched the Tamil movie ‘Sakalakala Vallavan’ as part of this review.

The movie/show detail page has the below details:

- Language
- Release year
- User rating of the movie
- Placeholder for user to rate the movie
- Cast and Crew
- Synopsis
- Add to watchlist
- Similar movies
- Cast to Smart TV
- Share
- Download, in 4 different video qualities, for offline viewing
(Downloaded content can only be viewed on the SunNXT app and will be valid only 48 hours from the time of download)

User can like a cast/crew by expanding the ‘Star Cast’ tab:

The standard features available on the video player include:

- Change screen brightness
- Change volume
- Forward/rewind by 30 sec
- Enable/disable subtitles
- Change video quality
- When a movie is playing, screenshots cannot be taken

Recommendation Engine:

It is seen that the ‘Recommended for You’ section shows a healthy mix of movies across the chosen content languages, with filters for Genres, Actors, Year also provided. Some of the initial recommendations shown for me were Pulikkuthi Pandi (Tamil), Naanga Romba Busy (Tamil), Agnyaathavaasi (Telugu), Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo (Telugu), Vellam (Malayalam) and Inspector Vikram (Kannada).

Search:

1. Recent and trending searches are bookmarked while searching for any title.

2. The search does not show very relevant results at times, as shown below. I couldn’t find the movie ‘Havina Hede’ through search, despite the movie being present on the platform.

Pros & Cons:

Pros

1. Wide variety of content across 5 major regional languages.
2. The app’s homepage is classified into widgets for various themes, making it easier for the user to choose content.
3. Chromecast and Apple Airplay support enables users to watch the content on their Smart TVs.
4. The subscription fee is low as compared to other OTTs in the market.
5. App supports split screen.
6. App provides notifications for Live TV schedules.
7. Option to create up to 4 profiles within each account, with the option to set one profile as kid-friendly.
8. Option to rewind Live TV upto 3 hours.
9. Comedy clips and music videos for users looking to view a particular comedy clip or song.

Cons

1. The search feature needs to be improved for relevant results.
2. Clicking on the SUNNXT logo does not take the user to the homepage on the app as one would expect it to.
3. The ‘favorite actors’ feature is not working and needs to be used to personalize the recommendations.
4. Trending shows are listed at the bottom of the page. Many users might not scroll till the bottom of the page and hence, may not even discover those titles. Also, having trending and popular content on the top can result in an increase in viewership.

Suggestions for the platform:

1. SunNXT should add the following content to their catalogue:
1. Regional language dubbed versions of English movies should be added on the platform, as the content is already available with them.
2. Regional language dubbed versions of Hindi movies and TV serials can be considered.
3. Hindi dubbed versions of regional movies can be added on the platform to attract Hindi audiences who already consume such content on TV channels.
2. User rating/IMDB rating can be shown with the movie as it would help users decide if the movie is worth watching.
3. Runtime details, trailer, IMDB rating can be added in the movie/show detail page as it would influence a user’s decision to watch the said content.
4. For users not comfortable with split screen, a floating window can be added for viewers to view movies/shows/comedy clips/music on minimizing the app.

Why should one subscribe?

1. The subscription cost is rupees 50 per month which is affordable compared to a lot of premium OTTs in the market, given the wide choice of content available across movies, shows, comedy clips, music videos in the 5 listed languages.
2. The OTT has a lot of old and new movies which may not be available on other OTTs at such a low subscription.
3. The option to watch Live TV, across 40+ channels.

Rating:

Based on the user experience, the pros and cons, the rating given to SunNXT is 7 on 10.

Having a SunNXT subscription is highly recommended for anyone who enjoys watching movies in regional languages. Users who want to watch movies only for a few weeks, say during the holidays, can opt for the monthly subscription, despite the fact that each movie will have 5-6 ad slots. In all other cases, it would be better to enjoy an ad-free experience with the quarterly or annual subscription plans.