Amazon Prime Video has debuted a movie rental service in India, pledging to release more than 40 original movies and series in the next two years.
As Reuters reported Thursday (April 28), India — with a population of close to 1.4 billion — is a crucial market for Amazon, along with streaming rivals Netflix and Disney+.
“We are super excited about the launch,” Gaurav Gandhi, head of Amazon Prime Video India, said at a function, adding that the service would broaden customers’ reach and choice and let them pay per movie, instead of a flat monthly fee.
Amazon Prime launched in India five years ago, and the retail and tech giant has said it wanted to more than double its investment in Prime Video. The company plans to roll out 41 original series in three Indian languages, some of which will be overseen by top Indian directors like Karan Johar and Zoya Akhtar.
Read more: Amazon Pours Millions Into India Unit
Amazon has made major invests in local content from India, where — as founder Jeff Bezos has said — Prime Video has performed better than any place else in the world. The company does not break down user figures by country, the report noted.
Meanwhile, Reuters said Amazon is expected to go up against heavyweights like Disney, Sony and India’s own Reliance Industries to determine which company wins exclusive digital broadcast rights to the widely popular Indian Premier League cricket matches.
In October of last year, Amazon brought Prime to Poland, offering free delivery and video streaming, pricing its service in that country at 49 zlotys (about $12.35) per year.
See also: Amazon Prime Goes Live in Poland With Free Delivery, Video Streaming
At the time, Pawel Szpigiel, an mBank analyst, said the announcement from Amazon about the new Prime service was a surprise, but added the eCommerce giant appears to have a big appetite for Poland’s market.
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