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The global giant is the 2nd after Netflix, to offer an on-demand service of movies and TV serials. But will it upset the indigenous business?
Amazon has brought its Prime Video services to India, with a 30 day trial and a compelling subscription rate, offering members a large selection of newly released Bollywood and regional Indian blockbusters, Hollywood movies and day-after-broadcast US TV shows, kids’ programming, plus, plus award-winning Amazon Original Series.
In addition, Amazon announced it has started production of new Indian Amazon Original Series featuring top Indian talent and filmmakers, which will also be available exclusively for Prime members.
AmazonPrime members in India will enjoy unlimited streaming video, ad-free and on-demand, at Rs 499 per annum.
To woo Indian audiences, the Amazon Original Indian Series will include genres such as drama, comedy, psychological thriller, biopics, period/action, mythological/fantasy, sports drama and political satire.
Prime members will also have access to the global Amazon Original Series from the US, including award-winning dark-comedy Transparent, the multi Golden Globe award-winning series Mozart in the Jungle, and The Man in the High Castle. Kids’ series will also be available.
In the last year, Indian providers of OverTheTop (OTT) video content like Eros, Hotstar, Voot and Muvizz have all gained market share, riding the boom in mobile data and broadband. The imminent growth of 4G will only accelerate customers' ability to receive and enjoy such video content.
Says Abhayanand Singh, Co-Founder & COO of Muvizz.com, the video on demand platform: "There is a steady growth in adoption of digital viewing/ VOD platform not just globally but also in India. Entry of global players in Indian market will further boost the sector and get more people into a habit of paying to watch content online. We at Muvizz.com are a niche platform which offers curated titles from world cinema to be watched socially. We also create and distribute original content and look forward to some exciting times ahead wherein new business models will emerge." Muvizz has funded the remake of Albert Pinto ko Gussa Kyu aata Hai with a total amount of 15 lakhs. They have also produced a recent short film called Taandav, directed by Devashish Makhija starring Manoj Bajpayee
Sidharth Pisharoti regional VP for media in APAC and Japan Akamai American content delivery network (CDN) and cloud services provider in an interview with IndianTelevision.com felt Indian players need not be overly worried: " I think the local players have a big edge over Netflix or any other global platform. Incidentally, globally too Netflix has changed its strategy and has started producing original content. It could be that either the studios have stopped giving them content or are giving content that makes it difficult to be monetised by the OTT platform. So, Netflix has started becoming a media house itself. Now they made have to be India specific."
Canny arrangements with telecom providers is one way Indian OTT players are growing: Eros Now, claimed recently that their platform currently had over two million paid subscribers worldwide through significant deals in place with all major telecom players in India who are on the forefront of 4G growth, including as Reliance Jio, Airtel, IDEA Cellular Network and more recently Vodafone. Between the four platforms that offer Eros Now integrated as part of their video service, there is a potential reach of 686 million subscribers which is almost 60% of India’s total mobile population
Moving beyond India, YuppTV, the largest OTTplayer in South-Asian content has partnered with popular Nepali TV channels to provide Nepali entertainment and news content to it worldwide audiences. Yupp had previously launched 18 different SriLankan channels on its platform, apart from top most Pakistani and Bangladeshi channels.
Voot, has one big anchor programme: The OTT platform of Viacom18, will be offering content from ‘Bigg Boss 10’, on Colors, the general entertainment channel in Hindi. Along with whole episodes, content will include stories from the house, with ‘Unseen Undekha’ which will be available on Voot website and through Android and iOS apps.
The future should see is decent amount of consolidation feels Pisharoti: "We can probably have maximum of 10 OTT players—three at national level, two global and couple of local providers."
