Amazon Prime Video, Netflix & Hotstar Fight For $272M Video Streaming Market of India

Being the second largest and fastest growing market for smartphones in the world, India is witnessing a significant rise in content consumption on mobile phones via over-the-top (OTT) platforms like Hotstar, Netflix and Amazon Prime video. Faster internet connection, lower 4G internet tariffs by telecom companies and availability of budget smartphones have led to this spurred consumption pattern.

Before 2015, this growth was slow as nobody could come up with the right combination of technology and suitable content for Indians. However, the scenario changed drastically after Star India launched Hotstar. While Sony Liv was already in the market, Hotstar gained huge attention due to extensive marketing and promotional strategies. Soon Netflix opened its services in January 2016.

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With Amazon Prime Video launching its services in India as well, now an Indian customer has a wide variety of content to choose from.

Netflix

Netflix is a leading streaming service in the world. In India, its subscription-based services start $8 onwards for the basic plan. Recently it has released a number of popular Netflix originals like House of cards, Orange is the New Black, Narcos, The Crown to name a few.

Netflix's services will soon be available on the DTH platforms of Bharti Airtel and Videocon. In order to reach the mobile customers, it has made a career billing agreement with Vodafone India and also aims to tie up with Jio. Now Netflix is planning to create original local content that matches the taste of Indian audience.

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Amazon Prime Video

Amazon has invested $300 million for content in India, which is more than the annual programming budgets of the three leading Hindi general entertainment channels put together. Though Netflix offers a lot of TV series, Amazon Prime Video is known for its movie selections, especially in the Indian content arena.

Learning from the Netflix experience, Amazon has filled its library with superhit films like Sultan, Kabali and Fan. Amazon Prime Video is putting a large sum of money into acquiring TV shows, films and originals. Its single annual subscription plan of $7 (Rs 499) works on almost every device.