Amazon Prime Video to offer mobile-only plan in India, starting at Rs 89 per month

MUMBAI: Amazon Prime Video is set to launch mobile-only subscription plans in India for its streaming service in a global first, offering Indian consumers the entire content slate starting at Rs 89 per month.
The move has come in the wake of strong growth of Prime subscribers in India, a country with the highest number of mobile-first internet users.

India has already become the top market with the highest number of consumers using mobile devices for streaming content.

“India is one of our fastest growing territories in the world with very high engagement rates,” said Jay Marine, vice president at Amazon Prime Video Worldwide. “Buoyed by this response, we want to double-down by offering our entertainment content to an even larger base of Indian customers.”

While India is the first market for Amazon where the company is offering Prime Video separately also, rival Netflix was the first player to launch a mobile-only plan in India in July 2019, for Rs 199 a month.


Netflix is also taking the plan to a few other countries.

However, unlike Netflix, which is offering the plans on its own, Amazon has partnered with Bharti Airtel to launch Prime Video Mobile Edition (PVME) plans.

Initially, these plans will be available only to the pre-paid consumers of the telecom operator.

“Over the last four years, Prime Video has grown to become the service of choice for millions of Indian subscribers. We continue to invest heavily in originals as well as exclusive content,” said Gaurav Gandhi, director and country general manager, Amazon Prime Video India. “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.”

While Airtel is the first partner for Amazon in India to offer the mobile only plans, the company is expected to extend the deal with other telecom operators too.

The PVME plans will allow users to access content only on one device, and in standard definition.

Amazon will offer a 30-day free trial of the service, following which, users will have an option to select from four different plans ranging from Rs 89 to Rs 349 for every 28 days. The plans will be bundled with the telecom service.

The Rs 89 plan will offer Prime Video and additional 6 GB of data, while the Rs 299 prepaid bundle will include Prime Video, unlimited calling and 1.5 GB per day. Rs 131 recharge will offer entire Prime membership (including free shipping, Prime Music and other Prime benefits), while Rs 349 plan will have full prime membership, along with unlimited calling and 2GB per day for 28 days.

“It’s our constant desire to democratise access to premium video content and this move is the step in the same direction of offering great value to our subscribers,” said Sameer Batra, director, mobile business development, Amazon Prime Video. “These plans will allow subscribers to quickly and effortlessly create an account with their mobile number and start watching content.”