Amazon Prime Video India‘s streaming service has had a report 2023 with 22 sequence and three characteristic movies commissioned, probably the most because it launched in 2016, and a excessive stage of client engagement.
India continues to prime the charts relating to Prime member engagement with Prime Video, the service informs Selection. No different Prime territory has a better proportion of Prime members watching Prime Video every month than India and Indian content material trended within the prime 10 on Prime Video worldwide for 47 of the final 52 weeks, securing 15% of the full prime 10 slots.
Earlier this yr, Sushant Sreeram, nation director of Prime Video India, reiterated the streamer’s intention of doubling down on investments within the territory. That has manifested itself within the variety of commissions, that are throughout genres and languages, and likewise in infrastructure.
“The chance, exterior of content material, of how will we drive accessibility and affordability, that’s the place plenty of our work has really gone in, particularly over the past 18-24 months. And there’s extra that you will note taking place subsequent yr,” Sreeram informed Selection.
When it comes to entry, Sreeram says, “The ubiquity of our gadget protection turns into paramount. With out that, we’re actually not going to have the ability to get the reveals that folks wish to watch, to them.” The service is now accessible throughout good TVs, cellular units, streaming media gamers together with Fireplace TV, Fireplace TV stick, Fireplace tablets, Apple TV and a number of gaming units. “At present, we even have extremely excessive penetration of Prime Video throughout the full related gadget panorama within the nation,” Sreeram mentioned.
Cost choices have been expanded to incorporate debit, credit score, Indian prompt cost system UPI (Unified Funds Interface), web banking and Amazon Pay pockets. Prime Video can also be accessible to customers by telecom suppliers Airtel and Vodafone’s pre-paid and post-paid subscription plans. In a market the place greater than 60% of the viewers watches content material on cellular units, Sreeram can also be happy with the success of the service’s Prime Video cellular version.
Prime Video can also be rising its viewers by its a la carte service Channels, which launched in 2021 with eight networks and has now grown to 23, with BBC Participant and BBC Children and Anime Instances being latest additions. “We’ll pioneer new methods of constructing merchandise and propositions, new companions that we’ll deliver on board,” Sreeram mentioned. “The essential factor isn’t just to construct a big world of plenty of companions, it’s simply as essential that we proceed to think about what are the pockets of leisure that our personal programming or our licensed programming doesn’t totally encapsulate and are there companions we expect can come on and add on that. That’s a vital determinant in how we take into consideration channels.”
One other latest success story for Prime Video India has been its TVOD service the place prospects from throughout the nation have rental entry to movies from India and around the globe. The 6,000-strong catalogue receives rental transactions from 95% of India’s publish codes, with some 75% rented no less than as soon as each month.
India’s streaming market has annual revenues of $1.7 billion, with Disney+ Hotstar the present market chief commanding a 23% share, in response to numbers from Media Companions Asia. Prime Video and JioCinema are shut behind with 21% every, adopted by Netflix with 18% and SonyLIV with 6%. Consolidation is on its method with a Sony-Zee merger within the works and, reportedly, Disney+ Hotstar and Jio.
“I’m normally not vulnerable to foretelling the long run, as a result of the long run has a humorous method of turning into the current very quickly. But when I used to be a betting man, I’d say that the one which might be standing very nicely, on the finish is gonna be the client,” Sreeram mentioned. “This isn’t constructed on some optimistic imaginative and prescient of the long run, however really only a monitor report of what the trade and what the class has gone by within the final 5 years.”
The Prime Video service has lengthy had a technique of going deep into India, past the metros and cities, and that would be the key going ahead as nicely, Sreeram mentioned. “The vary and the number of choices and alternatives and enterprise fashions which are really being explored by going deep and companies which are actually dedicated to going deep, there’s a goldmine on the backside of that the place it requires dedication, an acknowledgement of simply the sheer reality that there’s an unimaginable heterogeneity within the nation,” Sreeram mentioned.
“Indian storytelling is having a second proper now and I can see that persevering with. We’re completely dedicated to creating positive that we proceed to go deep,” Sreeram added. “It’s like we are saying at Amazon, ‘it’s all the time day one.’ We’re simply getting began. No matter what would possibly occur, we don’t obsess over competitors. Out of all of [..] the client goes to proceed to be spoilt for alternative.”
