It is Day 1 in streaming in India: Prime Video's Mike Hopkins
In conversation with Indian director-producer Karan Johar at the Prime Video conference, Mike Hopkins, head of Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios spoke about the current India market, how he sees it evolving, the strategies being implemented for growth and more.
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Mike Hopkins, Head of Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios was in conversation with Indian director-producer Karan Johar at the Prime Video conference.
Hopkins said, “I've noticed over the last few years that as content has been moving to streaming, it's complicated. People aren't always sure exactly where to go to get that movie, that TV series, or even that sport, depending on where they are in the world.”
Therefore, one of the things that the company has spent a lot of time thinking about is how can they put all of that together in one place for customers. Now it's not an easy feat.
Hopkins said, “We haven't succeeded everywhere in the world yet in putting all of their streaming content into one application, we are making a lot of progress. And what I mean by that is that we've approached streamers all over the world to join Prime Video; you can subscribe to them inside of our application.”
“We've also built the world's largest TVOD store, so more people rent and buy movies on Prime Video than any other stre in the world. And then, if you're not a subscriber or if you don't want to subscribe to something, We also offer an array of AVOD content where you can watch TV and films without a subscription,” he added. “We do that for the brand Free V around the world, and here in India, we have Mini TV, which is available on Prime Video and on our retail site. Speaking of Mini TV, our business is doing really well, where we've grown four times in overall watch time since 2023.”
Prime Video is growing at a rapid pace. India is a big market for the platform. During the FICCI Frames Summit, Sushant Sreeram highlighted that they serve 99 percent of India’s pin-codes. Thus, the consumer base is huge.
Hopkins mentioned that, “India is a key geographic area for us. We also believe in the story of India and the growth that's been happening here over the last several years. In fact, when I think about streaming television and I think of India, what's remarkable is that I've heard many people say this week that more people are streaming TV and film than they're watching it on linear television on satellite cable. And what's remarkable about that is that streaming has only really existed for seven or eight years. So this is all happening remarkably fast.”
“At Amazon. We've used this phrase; it's always Day 1. It is really Day 1 in streaming in India and around the world. But India is also a content hub. People have been making great television and film in India, long before a streaming service launched,” he added.
Hopkins also shared that the next 250 million subscribers that the platform is going to acquire, they are definitely going to come from outside of the United States. And this is not going to happen unless Prime Video does a really good job for customers in India as well.
He said, “We’ve been making a lot of progress in India, and I just have a couple of stats to just explain how things are going here. For the last several years outside of the US, more people have signed up for Prime in India than anywhere else in the world. So think about that. That's pretty good growth.”
“In the last year, India had the highest percentage of Prime members who streamed Prime Video than any other country in the world. So that's why people enjoy Prime Video and Indian teams doing a great job, and I couldn't be more thrilled to be here,” Hopkins added.
Hopkins further added that in any given week in 2023, Indian content was watched in over 210 countries and territories worldwide on Prime Video. Additionally, Indian programming trended in the top 10 on Prime Video worldwide for 43 out of the 52 weeks of 2023.
Hopkins shared, “Shows that are working the best for us, both here and internationally, are Farzi, Indian Police Force, Poacher, The Family Man, Made in Heaven, and many more that resonate all over the world. And so we couldn't be more thrilled with what's going on here. And so do our customers around the globe.”
Among other things lined up for the future of Prime Video not just in India but globally, Hopkins shared, “Today, when I woke up this morning, I opened up my phone, and I saw that we had just announced, because it was kind of leaked, so you know how that goes. And so it went out today... We just announced an ambitious news show from Mr. Beast with 1,000 contestants vying for a $5 million prize. Mr. Beast is aiming to create the largest game show in the history of the world. And we couldn't be more excited. Take that show out, show that format, and supersize it.”
