iWorld
Prime Video Channels introduces hayu as part of its offering
Mumbai: Amazon Prime Video has partnered with NBC Universal to offer its streaming service hayu to its subscribers in India as a part of Prime Video Channels. Prime members can subscribe to hayu at a price of Rs 999 per year, said the statement.
hayu is already available through Prime Video Channels in other countries including the UK, Canada, Germany, Austria, Netherlands, France, Italy, Spain, and Australia.
“Since its launch in India last year, Prime Video Channels has received a tremendous response from Prime Members who are delighted with the convenient access to a wide library of content, from multiple streaming services,” said Amazon Prime Video India head of Prime Video Channels and sports Chaitanya Divan. “Continuing with our philosophy of working with like-minded partners who are equally invested in super-serving customers and offering them quality, consistent entertainment experience, we are excited to collaborate with hayu. hayu offers some of the most popular unscripted shows to audiences globally and their arrival on Channels in India parallels the growing consumer interest in unscripted content on our service. We are certain that our consumers will love viewing their premier reality shows.”
hayu is a subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service that offers a wide variety of unscripted shows in the English language including “Keeping Up With the Kardashians,” “The Real Housewives,” “Vanderpump Rules,” “Below Deck,” “Top Chef” and “Family Karma.”
“We are thrilled to make hayu even more accessible to Indian super fans,” commented NBCUniversal managing director direct-to-consumer – global Hendrik McDermott. “Already the premiere destination for must-watch content in 29 markets globally, we are delighted to continue our collaboration with Prime Video Channels, by adding another partnership as part of our ongoing, successful expansion strategy.”
e-commerce
Visa report tracks rise of India’s affluent, experience-led spending
Affluent base doubles to 130 lakh, travel 58 per cent of elite spends.
MUMBAI: In India’s new luxury playbook, it’s less about owning more and more about living better. A new whitepaper by Visa Consulting and Analytics (VCA) maps a decisive shift in India’s affluent economy, where spending is becoming more intentional, experience-led, and closely tied to personal identity rather than pure income growth.
Titled India’s Affluent Economy 2025–2026, the report draws on a Visa-commissioned Yougov study and VisaNet data across travel, dining, retail and lifestyle categories. The headline number is hard to miss: individuals earning over Rs 10 lakh annually have nearly doubled from 69 lakh to 130 lakh, significantly expanding the country’s discretionary spending base.
But it’s not just about scale, it’s about behaviour. As consumers move up the affluence ladder, discretionary categories are taking a larger share of credit card spends, positioning cards as key enablers of premium, lifestyle-driven consumption.
The geography of wealth is shifting too. Affluence is no longer confined to metros such as Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru, with cities like Ahmedabad, Surat, Jaipur and Lucknow increasingly mirroring metro consumption patterns.
The report highlights a clear pivot from ownership to access. More than 50 per cent of affluent consumers now use cards for elite memberships, while 7 in 10 are drawn to limited-edition drops and curated collections. Increasingly, luxury is defined by seamless access be it concierge-led travel or curated dining where time saved is as valuable as money spent.
Spending patterns reinforce this shift. Among the ultra-elite, travel accounts for 58 per cent of discretionary spends, far outpacing retail and luxury combined at 28 per cent. Cross-border spending penetration stands at 63 per cent, signalling a growing global outlook among India’s affluent.
Closer home, indulgence is becoming routine. Nearly 4 in 5 affluent consumers dine at premium establishments at least three times a year, while 1 in 4 visit luxury venues more than five times annually. Dining spends are also climbing, with Rs 20,000 emerging as a new entry-level benchmark per experience and Rs 50,000 marking premium territory.
Retail, meanwhile, is becoming more selective. Three in four affluent consumers make a high-end purchase at least once a quarter, while one in four shops premium every two weeks. Luxury retail intensity is also rising, with 2 in 5 consumers spending over Rs 5 lakh annually, and a smaller but significant segment exceeding Rs 10 lakh.
Technology and wellness are carving out new roles in this ecosystem. High-end gadgets now see average spends of Rs 60,000 or more per purchase, while ultra-elite consumers are eight times more likely to visit spas and show five times higher engagement with cosmetic stores than non-affluent groups.
The broader takeaway is structural. Affluent consumers are no longer buying products, they are buying ecosystems. Integrated experiences across travel, dining, wellness and payments are becoming central to how this segment lives and spends.
As India’s affluent base expands beyond metros and aligns more closely with global consumption patterns, the real opportunity lies not just in size, but in speed. For brands, the message is clear: relevance will be defined by how early and how seamlessly, they plug into this evolving lifestyle economy.
