iWorld
Amazon Prime Video aims to keep evolving with customer taste
MUMBAI: Amazon Prime Video is boosting its content play in the market. The OTT platform is all set to stream its fifth Indian original Mirzapur from 16 November. In a media roundtable, Amazon Prime Video India content director and head Vijay Subramaniam also added that it will scale up originals further in 2020. Nine new Hindi originals are planned for 2019.
“I think it’s extremely important to understand that content has scale cinematically and our marketing matches that. It’s important for customers to feel that they are watching premium content and all of that in Rs 129 in a month,” Subramaniam commented.
It has been two years since Amazon Prime Video launched in India in the burgeoning OTT market. Since then, it has been very focused on customer taste and preferences. However, as India is a diverse market, the company wants to ensure that everything it does embraces diversity.
“It is a large market with multiple demographics and multiple segments. So it’s important to understand how we can cater to all of them consistently. Our customers are constantly evolving in their taste and preferences and we need to be updated on the kind of stories they watch and would love to watch. We need to go on that evolution with them," Subramaniam added.
The company, unlike its rival Netflix, has prioritised localisation since beginning. While the service already has content in six regional languages including Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Bengali and Kannada, it is also looking at adding more regional languages in next 12-18 months.
Interestingly, Subramaniam said that when new a language offering is launched, customers first seek movies. Hence, it tries to ensure adding the best and latest movies in the language to the library. After understanding their taste and preference, it adds content in other forms including originals. Right now the regional languages under evaluation for series-based content are Tamil and Telugu.
“In Tamil and Telugu, after having operated for a year, we looked at the opportunity to produce some series. Gangster was our first, another one in Tamil is coming out at the end of this month. These are both pilots in that sense. By putting these out we are trying to learn and understand our customers and get their feedback on what they like to watch. And once we have that we will definitely double down and scale up our originals in regional languages,” he added.
For the new nine-episode web series Mirzapur, Amazon Prime Video India has again collaborated with Excel Media & Entertainment after the Emmy winning Inside Edge. Set in the heartland of India, the show revolves around drugs, guns and the politics of power in a land where might is right. For the new show, while there have been enough large-scale outdoor marketing, there will be a lot of initiatives on the digital front too.
Amazon is confident that Mirzapur will make a mark not only in India but also globally. Breathe also did exceptionally well with 40 per cent viewers from outside India.
iWorld
OneOTT partners with UP govt for Project GANGA broadband rollout
Initiative to connect 2M plus households, empower 8,000–10,000 entrepreneurs in 2–3 years.
MUMBAI: Uttar Pradesh just got a digital Ganga flow because when broadband meets ambition, even villages start streaming faster than city traffic. OneOTT Intertainment Ltd. (OIL), the broadband arm of Hinduja Global Solutions (HGS) under the Hinduja Group, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the State Transformation Commission (STC), Government of Uttar Pradesh, for Project GANGA (Government Assisted Network for Growth & Advancement).
The MoU, signed on 7 March 2026 in the presence of Uttar Pradesh Finance & Parliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Kumar Khanna, aims to empower 8,000–10,000 local entrepreneurs at the Nyaya Panchayat level as independent Digital Service Providers (DSPs). A significant number of these DSPs are expected to be women. The initiative will deliver high-speed broadband to over 2 million households in the next 2–3 years and create direct and indirect employment for more than 100,000 individuals.
Project GANGA will support government priorities in digital education, healthcare and public services while enabling MSMEs and enterprises with reliable connectivity. DSPs will receive structured training, financing assistance, network build-out support and technology enablement.
STC CEO Manoj Kumar Singh said, “Project GANGA is a significant step toward expanding inclusive digital infrastructure in Uttar Pradesh. By empowering local entrepreneurs, the program will strengthen service delivery and ensure affordable digital access for underserved communities.”
OIL, MD & CEO and HGS whole-time director Vynsley Fernandes added, “This initiative reflects our long-term commitment to enabling digital access and economic opportunity at scale. Project GANGA is structured as a multi-year program focused on entrepreneur onboarding, network deployment and workforce development.”
OIL brings execution strength backed by HGS and NXTDIGITAL’s national footprint, which already connects over 5 million homes across more than 4,500 pin codes in 1,500 cities and towns through 15,000 plus franchise partners and over 2 lakh kilometres of fibre infrastructure. The ecosystem will support broadband, IPTV, OTT, CCTV, satellite internet and cybersecurity solutions for households, businesses and public institutions.
In a state racing toward digital inclusion, Project GANGA isn’t just laying cables, it’s laying the foundation for millions to connect, learn, heal and earn, one Nyaya Panchayat at a time.
