Amazon MX Player, an ad-supported video on demand (AVOD) service, on Thursday unveiled its content plans for 2025, coming four months after it acquired MX Player from Times Internet for an estimated $30-40 million (Rs 250-330 crore).
The move comes as the domestic media market, in particular, over-the-top (OTT) platforms have consolidated with Reliance and Disney coming together. Disney+ Hotstar is now part of the JioStar merged entity, which also includes the JioCinema app. Between them, JioStar has over 400 million monthly active users, according to industry experts, making it a formidable digital media player, rivalling Google’s YouTube, which has close to 500 million monthly active users in India, its largest market.
MX Player, which was merged with Amazon Mini TV after acquisition in September 2024, has a base of over 250 million monthly active users. Amazon Prime Video, which is a subscription-based video on demand (SVOD) service, is estimated to have over 60 million monthly active users on its platform.
The Amazon MX Player content line-up for 2025 includes over 100 shows covering fiction and non-fiction genres. While Amazon MX Player has an extensive movie library, the platform, which offers content for free, is keeping its focus on its “shows.” Sports content too will not figure on Amazon MX Player, industry sources said, as the cost remains prohibitive.
“This is a massive selection of content for free,” Karan Bedi, head of Amazon MX Player, said on Thursday during its ‘StreamNext’ event in Mumbai, where the slate was unveiled.
Industry sources say that Amazon is looking to consolidate audiences across shopping and entertainment in what it describes as “content to commerce.” Just one in five OTT users in India pay for their video content, implying that the propensity to go free is higher than going pay, experts said.
Media consultancy Ormax noted in a report on the OTT market in India that it is over 550-million-strong, growing at around 13.5% annually over the last two years. This growth is led largely by ad-supported video services, as consumers remain highly value-conscious, despite OTT tariff plans in India being among the lowest in the world. For instance, JioCinema’s two-tier monthly offering—Rs 29 for a single device and Rs 89 for family plans – offers premium content at less than a rupee a day.
Yet, Ormax said that SVOD audiences have declined by 2% in 2024 versus the previous year.
“The SVOD audience segment has witnessed a decline this year (2024), and the growth of the OTT universe has been solely driven by the AVOD audience segment,” Ormax said in its OTT Audience Report released in August 2024.