Prime Video sees magic in theaters while building global streaming
Despite the streaming revolution that reforms entertainment consumption worldwide, the best international managers of Prime Video will remain steadfast believers in the lasting power of the theatrical exhibition.
“We understand that people are selective about what they choose to view in the theater, but we think that the opportunity to bring the audience together and having a theatrical experience is still quite magical,” said Kelly Day, head of International and VP at Prime Video, during a fire chat on Avia’s Future of Video Conference. “We believe in the theatrical window.”
The comments of the day came during her appearance next to Gaurav Gandhi, VP for Asia Pacific and Mena at Prime Video, on the inaugural World Audio Visual & Entertainment Summit (Waves) in Mumbai. They are in stark contrast to Netflix Co-Kief Executive Ted Sarandos, who said, also at the Waves conference: “I assure you that no one except distributors, talking about Windows.”
The executive power revealed plans for theatrical distribution and explained the Dual-Track strategy of Prime Video that bridges traditional cinema and streaming. “We are going to continue experimenting to ensure that we not only maximize the chance of the films, but also ensure that we can deliver them to customers wherever they want to view them. Our ambition is to produce around 14-15 titles a year for the worldwide theatrical distribution,” Day said.
This balance act reflects the wider strategy of Prime Video to become an extensive entertainment destination. “We think it is unique. It starts with how we want to be the first place that people want to think about when they want to look,” Day explained, and acknowledges that as a streaming service they do not necessarily produce everything that hundreds of millions of customers all over the world can be in the mood. “
Gandhi emphasized the expansive entertainmenthub proposition of the service in India, which already includes ’25+ partners ‘, part of a growing network that includes’ hundreds of add-on subscription partners ‘worldwide, with markets such as Japan with ’70+ partners’.
The managers pointed to innovation in the Rental Market of India, where Gandhi notes: “We are doing category creation for TVOD in India. We have more than 7000 titles on the rental service, and we see around 60% of the rented property that are rented every month.
Day Positioned Prime Videos Global Footprint as “relatively unique”, active in “slightly more than 200 countries and areas” with “just over 200 million prime customers worldwide.” The services function differently in regions, with prime video bundled with shipping benefits, music and games in around 25 countries, while operating elsewhere as a stand -alone streaming service.
The meaning of India for the streaming giant was repeatedly emphasized, whereby Gandhi stated the “a super important local for prime video” that “a large growth motor remains” for both taking over new customers and involving existing Prime members.
In addition to the importance of the consumer, Gandhi emphasized the role of India as ‘a large content shub’ with ‘one of the largest slates of original content outside the US’, enjoy this content of international attraction, with ‘about 25% of our view actually comes from outside the country’.
India also serves as “a big innovation hub” for the product development of Prime Video, said Gandhi, groundbreaking offers such as the Mobile Edition Plan and multiple Prime membership level, including Prime and Prime Lite. With these innovations, service can segment customers based on needs before successful concepts are extended to other markets.
Gandhi concluded by emphasizing the Prime Video programming strategy in the language diversity of India: “We program here in 10 languages. As a streaming service you want to segment your range and you want to offer the customer the language of their choice, but you also want customers to experiment with other languages.
