Amazon Prime Video is on the cusp of its 10-year anniversary in India. And this journey has more or less been the entire lifespan of the digital streaming and OTT industry in the country.
When Amazon’s platform arrived in India, digital streaming was a new proposition. Indians were discovering the thrill of binge-watching, and only the most tech-savvy Indians were buying subscriptions for online content. All that has changed in the past decade.
Today, that narrative has matured. The real battle is no longer about capturing attention, but sustaining it. In a world where consumers are constantly toggling between Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, gaming, and traditional OTT platforms, attention itself has become the scarcest commodity.
For Amazon Prime Video, India is no longer an experimental market. It is central to its global ambitions and increasingly, a blueprint for the future of streaming.
Over the past 10 years, Prime Video has not just built a platform in India; it has helped shape the premium streaming category itself. When it entered the market, OTT was still nascent, largely urban, and heavily skewed towards English-language content. Today, it is a mass-market phenomenon, spanning languages, regions, and demographics.
As Gaurav Gandhi, vice president for the APAC & ANZ markets at Prime Video, puts it, the journey has been as much about ecosystem building as business growth.
“Our journey for the past 9-10 years has been as much about building the category as building Prime Video,” he told Inc42, reflecting on the platform’s evolution in India, at Prime Video Presents 2026 in Mumbai.
This dual mandate, growing both the platform and the category in India, has shaped every strategic decision the company has made since, Gandhi added. But where does Amazon Prime Video stand today?
If there is one anchor for Prime Video’s India strategy today, it is local stories that have the power to travel the world.
This is not just a creative belief. A significant 25% of viewership for Indian content on the platform comes from outside the country, a number that underscores how Indian storytelling is increasingly resonating across borders.
Nicole Clemens, VP of international originals at Amazon MGM Studios, said India is central to the platform’s global ambitions. “Indian content is core to our international success. The shows and movies we make here are able to travel beyond the country of origin and resonate across Prime Video locales,” she said.
That global resonance is being built on a very specific creative philosophy. Clemens emphasised that “cultural specificity, and combining universal themes, builds customer love and fandom,” pointing to the success of shows like The Family Man, Mirzapur, Paatal Lok and Farzi.
This approach marks a shift from earlier phases of Indian OTT, where platforms often leaned towards either hyper-local storytelling or globalised formats. Prime Video is instead betting on a middle path, stories that are deeply rooted in Indian contexts but emotionally universal.
The scale of this ambition is reflected in its pipeline. With over 100 shows currently in development and production, and more than 60% of its original series extending into multiple seasons, the platform is actively building a long-term content engine. But more importantly, it is building intellectual property — stories that can evolve into franchises, travel across geographies, and sustain audience engagement over the years.
In that sense, India is no longer just a content market for Prime Video. It is becoming a global content export hub, positioned alongside Korea, Spain, and Japan in the streaming ecosystem.
This approach also ties into a broader strategic goal: expanding accessibility. As Gandhi noted, the platform sees significant untapped potential in India. “There’s so much headroom ahead for streaming and for Prime Video to grow in India; we want to make Prime and Prime Video even more accessible to customers around the country,” he said .
That “headroom” is not just about geography, but also about demographics. The next wave of streaming growth in India will come from smaller towns, regional audiences, and first-time internet users. Reaching them requires not just compelling content, but also the right pricing, formats, and distribution channels.
In that sense, India has become a testing ground for what the future of streaming could look like globally: hybrid models, flexible pricing, and deeply localised user experiences.
As the streaming market matures, Prime Video is increasingly looking beyond episodic content to build a broader entertainment ecosystem. This is most evident in its growing focus on films and franchise-building.
Over the years, the platform has evolved from simply licensing films to producing them. Today, it is taking the next step: backing theatrical releases that eventually flow into its streaming ecosystem. This marks a significant shift in how streaming platforms engage with the film industry.
Gandhi described this transition as a deliberate effort to expand across the value chain. “We actually started our journey with just licensing films and moving into co-productions. And today we’re announcing theatrical releases and then bringing them to Prime Video after that,” he said.
More interestingly, Amazon’s MGM Studios has unveiled an Indian theatrical slate as well, movies which will be released in theatres. This at a time when rival Netflix opened its global production and innovation studio, Eyeline Studios, in Hyderabad.
Amazon Prime Video believes this turn to IPs is not just about supply; it also speaks volumes about the demand. Indian audiences continue to have a strong appetite for films across languages, and the lines between theatrical and digital consumption are increasingly blurring. The likes of Netflix, Apple, Amazon Prime are realising this in the US, and this approach is trickling down to India too.
By positioning itself across both the home and the big screen of theatrical releases, Prime Video is ensuring that it remains relevant regardless of how viewing habits evolve.
As we mentioned, at a broader level, this strategy aligns with global shifts in entertainment consumption. In the Indian context, as non-English content gains prominence and audiences become more open to diverse narratives, platforms that can consistently produce high-quality, culturally rich stories will have a distinct advantage.
There’s no denying that IP and franchise-building is a key focus for Amazon today. With a majority of its shows extending into multiple seasons, there is a clear shift from one-off content drops to long-term storytelling. Gandhi underscored this focus.
“60% of them are in subsequent seasons and big franchises. What we’re extremely proud and intentional about is that we continue to have the machine to build more IPs.”
This “IP-first” approach is particularly important in a fragmented attention economy. While short-form platforms may dominate daily screen time, long-form franchises create deeper engagement and sustained loyalty. They give audiences a reason to return, to invest emotionally, and to stay within the ecosystem.
Prime Video’s bet is that creating original IPs and content might well be the panacea from the endless short video doomscrolling and AI slop on social media. Will this click with audiences and the shortening attention spans these days?
The post Amazon Prime Video’s Next Decade In India: The Focus Turns To IPs appeared first on Inc42 Media.
