Now all Airtel Broadband customers in India can get a 2 year free subscription to Encyclopedia Britannica (worth Rs.6575). EB is a undoubtedly the biggest authoritative resource of information with over 100 million users.
In a press release, Jorge Cauz, President Encyclopaedia Britannica says
“Britannica Online contains rich information along with rich multimedia, and that makes it an excellent match for Bharti Airtel’s broadband service. India is one of the largest English speaking markets and is an important market to EB’s expansion plans in the Asia Pacific. We believe the Indian broadband users will enjoy EB’s rich, up-to-date and accurate information and we welcome their active participation as part of our growing community. As broadband become more widely available in India, we hope that more families can enjoy EB’s various online services and share the knowledge we are committed to provide more than 240 years. This agreement is an important step in that direction.”
Airtel users can simply visit www.eb.com and log in to premium content without the need for a username or password. As I visit Encyclopedia Britannica from my Airtel connection, it seems Airtel got a good deal as they managed to take over the EB page by displaying 2 huge ad banners over the fold on their websites and one below the fold.
As I browsed through the articles, each EB article was overpowered by as many as 8 Airtel ads per page, depending on the length of the article/page. I don’t expect non-Airtel users to see these banners (or are you also seeing them?)
Either way, enjoy Airtel users can now enjoy the free Encyclopedia Britannica content. My kid is super excited about this.