The acquisition would help the company launch an over-the-top (OTT) video streaming service to compete with the likes of Hotstar, Voot, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.

Former COO of Eros Now Karan Bedi has been appointed to head up the MX Player Online service, according to The Ken.

The Android app MX Player is popular in South Asia and Iran, and according to App Annie has been downloaded around 63.6 million times by Indian smartphone users. Some 80% of these have low-end smartphones and 20% high-end models.

MX Player claims to be the first Android video player that supports multi-core decoding, providing good visual quality and small file sizes.

Times Internet, a subsidiary of publishing giant The Times of India Group, is reportedly testing a different version of the app ahead of launching an OTT product. The company shut down its four-year old streaming platform, Box TV, in 2016.

Among its multiple digital businesses, The Times of India Group currently operates the internet channels for The Times of India, The Economic Times, Navbharat Times, Maharashtra Times, iDiva and Luxpresso, along with cricket news site CricBuzz.