Variety: Amazon Doubles Down on India Streaming Wars With Two-Platform Strategy

Story from Variety:

Amazon is playing a dual-platform game in India’s competitive streaming landscape, with Prime Video targeting subscription-ready consumers while its ad-supported Amazon MX Player courts viewers transitioning from traditional TV.

Speaking at the APOS conference in Indonesia, Amazon executives outlined their strategy for serving India’s diverse streaming audience through two distinct services. Gaurav Gandhi, VP of Asia Pacific and MENA for Prime Video, explained the rationale behind the approach.

“India is a really heterogeneous and diverse country with customers having very different needs,” Gandhi said during the panel discussion moderated by Vivek Couto of Media Partners Asia, which organizes APOS. “Prime Video caters to customers who are subscription-ready, who have actually transitioned to streaming as their first choice or the only choice of entertainment. While Amazon MX Player is aimed at customers who are now transitioning from traditional media — TV or are still on it, but are not subscription-ready yet, though they are seeking high-quality premium content.”

The strategy reflects Amazon’s bid to capture the full spectrum of India’s streaming market, from premium subscribers to mobile-first viewers. Prime Video dominates on living room devices, while Amazon MX Player reaches over 250 million monthly users, primarily on mobile.

The platforms’ content approaches differ significantly. Prime Video focuses on premium originals across 10 Indian languages, plus global content and add-on subscriptions to services like Apple TV. Amazon MX Player focuses on scripted dramas, unscripted content, dubbed international programming, and short-form video.

Nikhil Madhok, director and head of originals for Prime Video India, said, “We’ve been very clear about bringing premium, nuanced, segmented, and highly differentiated cinematic quality originals. The investments that we’re making in the production quality for these originals is way higher than linear television, and closer to cinema.”

This approach has yielded franchise hits including “Made in Heaven,” “The Family Man,” “Paatal Lok,” and “Call Me Bae.” Madhok stressed that Prime Video thinks “very deeply about themes, and not just genres,” citing horror series “Khauf” as exploring young women’s urban challenges beneath its genre packaging.

Amazon is also making a major push into theatrical releases through Amazon MGM Studios. As revealed by Variety, the company recently set “Nishaanchi,” directed by Anurag Kashyap, for September theatrical release.

“Starting 2026, we will be releasing four to six movies in theatres every single year,” Madhok said, marking a significant expansion of Amazon’s theatrical footprint in India. Since 2020, Prime Video has premiered over 65 movies across six languages directly on the service while continuing to license theatrical releases for streaming premieres.

Meanwhile, Amazon MX Player is preparing to launch MX Fatafat, a micro-drama format targeting mobile-first audiences. Amogh Dusad, director and head of content for Amazon MX Player, described the new offering as “serialized stories told in short, one-to-two-minute episodes, with 80 to 100 episodes per series, in vertical format.”

The format aims to provide “quick entertainment during brief moments throughout their day” for mobile users, Dusad explained. MX Fatafat is slated to launch later this year.

Dusad noted that MX Player’s content strategy draws on customer insights about aspirational themes. “Themes of inspiration and aspiration resonate with customers because these are people who really want to go up the socio-economic ladder, and rags-to-riches stories or content about an underdog’s journey strike a chord with their lives,” he said.

The platform’s franchise “Aashram” has attracted over 200 million streams in India, while series like “Hustler” taps into startup culture themes.

Both platforms are actively cultivating new talent, with over 50% of Prime Video’s originals in development featuring new creators either in front of or behind the camera. Gandhi underscored this as intentional support for India’s creative economy.

“One of our big successes this year, ‘Dupahiya’ came from absolutely new, first-time creators,” Gandhi noted. With MX Fatafat, Amazon MX Player plans to unlock “a new wave of first-time creators by actively co-creating content with emerging talent.”

Amazon continues investing in both platforms as it sees significant opportunities in India’s streaming market. “It is still early days for streaming in India,” Gandhi said, expressing optimism about both ad-supported and subscription-based services’ growth potential.