Amazon Prime Video India has partnered with Indian telecommunications operator Bharti Airtel to launch a mobile-only plan in India, the first territory in the world where it has been offered.
The Prime Video Mobile Edition, as the plan is called, is available from Wednesday to Airtel pre-paid customers. It is free for the first 30 days and thereafter is charged at an introductory price of INR89 ($1.21).
Several further bundles will be available at standard definition streaming quality. INR89 gets the customer the Prime Video Mobile Edition for 28 days and 6GB data. An INR299 ($4.09) pre-paid bundle buys Prime Video Mobile Edition, unlimited calling and 1.5GB per day, for 28 days, while an INR131 ($1.79) package buys Amazon Prime membership for 30 days with full Prime Video access, free shipping and unlimited ad-free music. An INR349 ($4.77) pre-paid bundle buys Amazon Prime membership with full Prime Video access, free shipping and unlimited ad-free music along with unlimited calling and 2GB per day for 28 days.
Rival Netflix began trialling a mobile plan in India in 2019. It costs INR199 ($2.72) monthly.
Jay Marine, VP, Amazon Prime Video worldwide, said: “India is one of our fastest-growing territories in the world with very high engagement rates. Buoyed by this response, we want to double down by offering our much-loved entertainment content to an even larger base of Indian customers. Given high mobile broadband penetration in the country, the mobile phone has become one of the most widely used streaming devices. With the launch of Prime Video Mobile Edition we look forward to entertaining every Indian with our exclusive and original content.”
Gaurav Gandhi, director and country general manager of Amazon Prime Video India said: “Over the last four years, Prime Video has become the country’s most loved premium streaming service with viewership coming from over 4,300 towns and cities. We believe that the Mobile Edition plan will further accelerate Prime Video’s adoption in India and allow an even larger number of customers to access our popular entertainment content. This initiative for Amazon is designed not just to give customers more choice (of plans) but also easy access to subscribe to Prime Video along with mobile data plans. We are happy to collaborate with Airtel as our first partner in India for Prime Video Mobile Edition.”
Airtel is India’s second largest mobile telephony provider with more than 326 million subscribers, giving it a 28% market share, according to data released in December by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. Billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio is the market leader with 404 million subscribers for a 35% market share.
Shashwat Sharma, chief marketing officer, Bharti Airtel said: “At Airtel, we are deeply passionate about delivering a differentiated experience to our customers through our Airtel Thanks program. We are happy to partner with Amazon to democratize quality digital entertainment in India by leveraging Airtel’s core strengths of quality customers, deep distribution and best-in-class network for video.”
Amazon has several Emmy-nominated Indian originals including “Inside Edge,” “Made in Heaven” and “Four More Shots Please.”
