How Amazon Prime Video Is Becoming Netflix Of India
Amazon’s boss Jeff Bezos recently confirmed that Prime Video is doing well in India compared to the other markets. Prime Video is a video-on-demand service from Amazon, where Prime members can watch exclusive movies and television shows.
Though it is evident that Prime Video does lack the content library compared to Netflix, it is doing something right, which is being noticed by the smart Indian audience that recently started streaming online (at least a vast majority of them). Here are some of the reasons why Prime Video is shining in India.
Amazon charges Rs. 999 per year for the Prime subscription and the company offers free music stream, free video streaming, top deals, and free one-day delivery. Whereas, the base plan of Netflix starts at Rs. 199 per month, which comes with multiple setbacks. On top of it, one also has to pay for the internet connection. Even after paying Rs. 199 per month, Netflix limits the usage to a single device and even the streaming quality is limited to 480p.
Most of the users now a day own a smartphone with a screen resolution of 720p at least and watching a 480p content is probably not the best experience that one can get. Whereas, a single Prime account can be used to access Prime Video on five devices and the content can be enjoyed at 4K resolution via smart televisions.
Netflix has a vast library of content that might work with the English speaking audience. However, Prime Video even with limited content has managed to perform well due to the diversity it offers. People around me have started using the phrase “will see it on prime” in the next few days that definitely speaks about the penetration of Prime Video in the Indian market.
Most of the India centric content on Netflix is for the Hindi audience, and India is a country of diversity where language changes for every few hundred kilometers. Prime Video has started to invest in local content, where most of the big-budget movies from both North and South Indian will make it to Prime. This means, even someone from a remote location can watch movies and shows that he understands at a reasonable price.
The number of video-on-demand services is on the rise in India and most of them offer free to use. However, these free services hinder the overall movie-watching experience by introducing ads in between, whereas Prime Video offers an ad-free user experience. These three points are helping Prime Video to make a strong presence in the paid video-on-demand service in India, especially compared to Netflix.