To win in India, Netflix and Amazon are copying the tactics of a video-streaming service built for the local market
Hotstar, launched four years ago by media conglomerate Star India as a mobile-first streaming platform for watching cricket, movies and TV, dominates the Indian market. Photo: SANJAY KANOJIA/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images By Newley Purnell June 4, 2019 7:00 a.m. ET NEW DELHI—To win in India, home to many of the world’s next billion internet users, Netflix Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. AMZN 2.18% are copying the tactics of a video-streaming service built for the local market.
Netflix is churning out Indian-language dramas, love stories and thrillers and slashing its monthly rates. Amazon has signed up local stand-up comedians and backed a “Sex and the City” clone about a group of women in Mumbai that is broadcast in three Indian languages. Hotstar says its global rivals can’t match its library of decades of popular shows, which it inherited as a subsidiary of Star India. Disney acquired Star India, a 28-year-old network of more than 10 Indian television channels, as part of its $71.3 billion deal in March to buy the bulk of the 21st Century Fox entertainment assets.
Netflix executives initially targeted well-to-do, English-speaking urban Indians, according to a person familiar with the matter, and quickly figured out they had to slash prices to reach beyond India’s upper crust, the person said. Netflix costs around $7 a month in India, but to juice growth the company has introduced smartphone-only plans that cost less than $1 for one week of access at a time.
Amazon has about 2.5 million subscribers in India, IHS Markit says. Prime Video, which launched in India in 2016, costs as little as $1.19 a month. As in other markets, subscribers also get Amazon music streaming and expedited shipping. Amazon is aiming to release eight Indian original shows this year, up from one 2017 and five in 2018. Last year, Amazon added an interface for its app and website in Hindi, Telugu and Tamil, and now has content in nine local languages.
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