After Netflix, now Amazon Prime Video has rolled out their mobile-only plan to woo potential Indian smartphone users in the country.
On Wednesday, Amazon India announced that their first mobile-only Prime Video Mobile Edition with a starting price of only ₹89 per month only. But, there’s a catch.
Initially, this single-user plan will only be made available to Bharati Airtel’s prepaid customers exclusively. According to the company, after the 30-day trial period, a user can opt for the ₹89 28-day plan which comes with 6GB of Mobile Data.
Quite obviously this move by Amazon shows an effort towards grabbing more market share amid the streaming war with players such as Netflix, Disney Hotstar and Zee5, among all others.
Gaurav Gandhi, Amazon Prime Video India Director and Country General Manager, in a statement about the same, said that India is their fastest-growing global market which shows very promising and high engagement rates. Therefore, based on this encouraging response, Amazon Prime Video wanted to double down on their efforts and reach out to a broader audience via this cost-effective and affordable plan.
In the month of July 2019, Netflix announced a similar mobile-only plan for ₹199 only signalling that the US-based streaming giant was gunning after Tier-II cities and small cities. Now, with Amazon doing the same, one can confirm mobile-only plans will soon become a norm amid all streaming services in India hoping to aggressively acquire more users.
Much like Netflix, Prime Video’s mobile edition plan is meant for single users only wherein he or she will be able to stream in SD aka standard definition quality. Gandhi said this plan is meant especially for a country like India wherein the majority is a mobile-first generation.
Currently, as of the launch of the Prime Video mobile-only plan, all Airtel customers on using bundled prepaid packs will be able to avail a 30-day free trail via the Airtel Thanks app after which they can opt for the ₹89 plan to continue accessing Amazon’s streaming service along with 6 gigabytes of data
Gandhi further mentioned that Prime Video, over the last four years, has observed a lot of growth in viewership coming from over 4,300 towns and cities in India. Thus, he believes the mobile edition plan will help them further increase their reach in the same direction.
Note here that besides the introduction of the mobile-only plan, Amazon Prime Video will continue to have their annual ₹999 and ₹129 per month offerings for users who wish to access the service on multiple devices and superior streaming quality.
In the past few years, cheap data tariffs and availability of budget smartphones have helped OTT aka over-the-top players such as Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney Hotstar speed past their initially projected growth potential. And then came COVID-19 which added further to the fuel. These digital platforms observed record new users and streaming watch times when the pandemic restricted social activities and visits to the theatres.
Thus, now to maintain the same momentum, streaming giants are offering more perks and teaming up with telcos such as Reliance Jio and Airtel in order to woo more users to their platforms. Now, it remains to be seen what does the future hold for the barrage of homegrown streaming players and giants alike. We will keep you updated. Until then, stay tuned.
