“2024 is going to be our busiest year on content in terms of the sheer programming cadence that we are going to have for customers both individuals and households,” said Prime Video India country director Sushant Sreeram.
In 2023, the streaming firm had its single biggest content slate in India with 24 original scripted and unscripted shows, he said.
Prime Video debuted in India in 2016.
Globally, Amazon reportedly spent close to $17 billion on content in 2022 across TV, film, music, and live sports.
Sreeram said 2023 was one of the best years for Indian content globally, with locally produced content trending in the top 10 on Prime Video worldwide for 47 of the past 52 weeks.Prime Video is positioning itself as an entertainment hub with multiple services across streaming, aggregation and movie rental.Prime Video Channels, the aggregation service that launched two years ago in India, has added 23 content partners who cumulatively offer about 28,000 hours of content.
Its movie rental service, Prime Video Store, claims to have the largest movie library in the country with a catalogue of about 6,000 titles.
“We have done well as an entertainment hub across streaming, aggregation and movie rental,” said Sreeram.
He also said live sports continue to be a key focus area for Prime Video and the platform continues to evaluate opportunities in live sports to assess whether they make economic sense.
“Sports remains an area of interest and we continue to evaluate opportunities in live sports like the New Zealand Cricket rights,” Sreeram said.
In December 2021, Prime Video India acquired New Zealand Cricket rights till 2026, marking its entry into live sports in India. Recently, Prime Video Australia acquired the International Cricket Council (ICC) rights for that market.
Amazon did not bid for the Indian Premier League (IPL), the ICC or the Board of Control for Cricket in India, despite speculation that it was one of the contenders for digital rights to these three properties.
The Prime Video India chief said the platform’s aggregation service Prime Video Channels has added Dream Sports-owned sports streaming platform FanCode to its offering as part of its commitment to offer variety to its customers.
