Amazon is looking to increase the amount of regional content available on its platforms. Prime Music just signed up with Indian Performing Right Society (IPRS) while Prime Video is looking to integrate more content from South India and sports streaming.
The IPRS enables Prime Music to have access to more than a million unique tracks in multiple languages across different eras and genres. This tie-up is significant as IPRS is the sole authority to issue music licenses within the country. This organization collects royalties on the behalf of artists and distributes them accordingly between writers, composers, and publishers of music.
Amazon Prime Video, since its inception in India around a year ago, has a huge library of regional shows in five different local languages. Amazon’s Prime Video service is growing with the most speed in India as compared to anywhere else in the world.
James Farrell, Head of Content in the Asia-Pacific region, commented, “We haven’t announced any originals yet from the South but we are looking to do as much as can be done.”
Tim Leslie, Vice President of Amazon Video International, also indicated that Amazon Prime Video is looking to expand into sports content globally stating, "It’s day one in sports for us and we’re getting involved in it."
In the US, they’ve already started streaming American football and is currently in the process of striking deals for other sports such as tennis. Currently, Amazon does not stream sports in India but this trend is probably trickle down to the Indian platform once the international structure has been established.
Currently Hotstar has exclusive digital rights to stream all ICC events in India.
The Indian market is of prime importance for Amazon since it’s been on a constant upward trajectory even since it’s local launch. Its unique outlook for providing region-specific original content has also worked out well with shows such as Breathe.