Amazon Prime Video launches TVOD service for movie rentals

After launching Prime Video Channels last year, Amazon today launched Prime Video Store, its transactional video-on-demand (TVOD) movie rental service in India. Amazon Prime Video announced this significant step towards creating a video entertainment marketplace at its maiden Prime Video Presents India showcase event in Mumbai.

Customers can now get early access to the latest Indian and International movies, including popular movies (award winners and franchises) from around the world on a transactional (per-movie) basis. It will enable the streaming platform to expand its customer footprint further as the rental service will be available to all Prime and non-Prime members.

It also unveiled its biggest slate to date in India with over 40 new titles, in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu, across original series, original movies and co-productions that it plans to launch over the next 24 months.

Some of the original series set to launch soon are Bambai Meri Jaan (Excel Media and Entertainment), Call Me Bae (Dharmatic Entertainment), Dahaad (Excel Media and Tiger Baby), Indian Police Force (Rohit Shetty Picturez and Reliance Entertainment) and Modern Love Mumbai (Pritish Nandy Communications). Consecutive seasons of its popular series like Breathe: Into The Shadows, Mirzapur, Paatal Lok and The Family Man will also be returning.

It has also signed up licensing associations with Ajay Devgn Ffilms, Dharma Productions, Excel Media and Entertainment and Yash Raj Films for their upcoming films. These include much-anticipated titles like Shamshera, Jayeshbhai Jordaar and Pathan.

Dialling up its strategy of bringing the best and latest movies to consumers across languages, Prime Video announced new multi-year licensing deals and co-productions with some of India’s biggest and most successful studios. Prime video also announced its foray into original movie production in India with films in Hindi and Telugu, to be released directly on the service.

The service recently completed half a decade of super-serving customers in India, and announced that it will more than doubling its investment in Prime Video India over the next 5 years.

The upcoming Amazon Originals will enthral customers by offering a wide gamut of genres, ranging from cutting-edge thrillers, high-octane action, engaging dramas to light-hearted comedies and heart-warming romances. The service is augmenting its original programming for young adult audiences, and also exploring genres like supernatural and horror for the first time in its India journey. Furthermore, Prime Video is enhancing the scope of its unscripted series catalogue to explore genres like biographies, true-crime and investigative docudramas.

Prime Video aims to be a home for talent. It is working with a wide set of diverse creators with unique, cinematic voices from across the country. Almost 70% of the new upcoming titles will feature new talent - both in front of and behind the camera.

Customers will get early rental access to movies across languages and the rental service can be accessed via the STORE tab on primevideo.com and the Prime Video app.

“In the last 5 years, we have built a strong slate of locally produced content across languages, super-serving the diverse entertainment needs of Indian customers. With increased access and distribution, we have helped these great stories travel far and wide in India, and around the world. We have played a key role in helping expand the linguistic palette of Indian customers, thereby, increasing the audience base for creators and talent. Prime Video India today sees viewership from 99% of the country’s pin-codes. India continues to be one of Prime Video’s fastest-growing & most engaged locale globally. We are humbled by the love we have received from our consumers and continue to be deeply committed to delighting our customers with great content, while also fuelling the creative economy,” said Gaurav Gandhi, country head, Amazon Prime Video India.

Speaking about the multi-pronged approach on expanding the movies segment in India, Gaurav added, “In tune with our vision to become the most-loved entertainment hub, we have steadily innovated in the way we offer movies to our consumers, from offering films in a post-theatrical early-window to direct-to-service premieres bringing the most anticipated movies to consumers’ living rooms and preferred devices. We are deeply committed to grow this segment further and are going bigger on our film licensing partnerships, expanding our co-production initiatives and are now excited to announce our foray into original movies. In addition to our investments in great content, we are super excited about the launch of our TVOD movie rental service, that will not just give even more expanded reach to these films but also give customers more choice in how they want to access and watch content.”

Elaborating on the expansive content slate announced today, Aparna Purohit, head of India originals, Amazon Prime Video said, “Our mission has been to tell compelling, authentic and rooted stories that not just connect with audiences in India but resonate with audiences across the world. We feel humbled that the characters of our shows and films have inspired new archetypes, blazed a new trail, and in fact, become a part of the cultural zeitgeist. As we move forward, we are excited to partner with some of the most prolific creators to bring forth powerful stories across different formats, genres and languages for our customers. We are confident that our upcoming slate of shows and films will transcend all barriers of language, nationality or formats.”