Amazon is adding a new feature to its Prime Video service in India. For an additional fee, users can get premium content from other chosen popular video streaming services.
Named Prime Video Channels, it is kickstarting its service with 8 OTT platforms - discovery+, Lionsgate Play, Eros Now, DocuBay, MUBI, hoichoi, manoramaMAX, and ShortsTV.
Other OTT brands are likely to be added to the list soon. The new value-added service has gone live today.
India is the 12th country to host this content-aggregating Prime Video Channels after the US, Japan, the UK, and others.
With the launch of Prime Video Channels, close to 10,000 additional titles across 8 OTT services become available to Prime members.
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Benefits for Amazon Prime Video members
This add-on option for Amazon Prime Video members will basically stream content, including thousands of shows, movies, reality TV, documentaries, from these 8 platforms on Amazon Prime Video website and apps.
Amazon said that customers will need to pay only for the service they choose. At launch, Prime members can enjoy a special introductory annual subscription offer made available by the OTT channel partners.
Gaurav Gandhi, Country Manager, Amazon Prime Video, India said "With the launch of Prime Video Channels, we now take the next big step in our journey to entertain India by creating a video entertainment marketplace – first of its kind in India – which will not only delight our customers by giving them even more entertainment choices, but also benefit the OTT Channel partners who collaborate with us to leverage Prime Video’s distribution, reach and tech infrastructure.”
As per Amazon, among the benefits for Prime Memebers is customers will no longer have to juggle between multiple usernames, passwords and billing due dates. "With Prime Video Channels, all premium content subscriptions are managed within a single destination – Prime Video apps and website," it said.
With Prime Video Channels, users can browse multiple OTT platforms in one place, search across all their premium subscription and get personalized recommendations.
“As content choices explode, a single interface for discovery, streaming and payments, is a key need for customers and we aim to solve for this with the launch of Prime Video Channels” added Chaitanya Divan, Head Prime Video Channels, Amazon Prime Video.
The Prime Video Channels launch also underscores the need for consolidation and collaboration in the video streaming segment. Recently, we have seen the coming together of Zee5 and SonyLIV, two big names in the segment.
Inaugural pricing and offers
Prime Video Channels subscriptions and annual pricing at launch in India include:
· discovery+: Rs 299/year (A 25% discount from its existing price)
· DocuBay: Rs 499/year (A 50% discount from its existing price)
· Eros Now: Rs 299/ (A 25% discount from its existing price)
· hoichoi: Rs. 599/ year ( A 33% discount from its existing price)
· Lionsgate Play: Rs 699/year
· manoramaMAX: Rs. 699/ year (A 30% discount from its existing price).
· MUBI: Rs 1999/year
· ShortsTV: Rs 299/year (A 40% discount from its existing price).
Amazon Prime Video entering the content aggregation makes the OTT scene in India interesting. In India, OTT aggregators are mostly telco operators such as Airtel (Airtel XStream) and Reliance Jio (JioFiber, Jio TV Plus) or DTH platforms such as Tata Sky Binge.
A new streaming aggregator ScreenHits TV is getting ready to enter the Indian market.
India has over 60 OTT platforms, has 353 million OTT users and 96 million active paid subscriptions.
