Amazon Prime Video used the APOS media conference in Bali to argue that the future of streaming in the Asia-Pacific region lies not in a single subscription, but in an “entertainment hub” – a comprehensive platform that links its originals, partner channels, rentals and add-on subscriptions behind a single login. The vision, which was shared by the company’s regional leadership in a session titled “Asia Pacific Guide: How Prime Video is shaping the future of streaming,” tracks the industry’s broader shift away from standalone apps toward aggregation and aggregation, which has been a recurring theme throughout APOS this week.
Speaking alongside Media Partners Asia’s Vivek Kotto, Gaurav Gandhi, Prime Video’s vice president for Asia Pacific, Australia and New Zealand, portrayed the region as a patchwork that precludes any single approach.
“We operate a common business model, but we cannot have common rules of the game for a region as diverse as the Asia-Pacific,” he said. He added that across its core Asian markets, only two things remain consistent: The service operates within Amazon’s Prime membership program, and it acts as a hub, layering additional subscriptions and transactional rentals on top of the basic subscription level.
The hub, as Gandhi described it, is a push for expansion on both sides of the deal, as customers get the “broadest selection” with a single app and billing relationship, and content partners gain distribution and massive audiences without having to build their own technology and payments stack. He said Prime Video now works with more than 600 content partners worldwide, including more than 70 in Japan, more than 50 in Australia and more than 30 in India, many of whom treat the platform as a major route to market.
However, Prime’s strategy, which is not particularly new, faces a moment in which the streaming business across Asia is maturing, pushing players of all sizes toward bundling and bundling rather than the head-to-head fight for subscribers that characterized the first phase of the streaming wars. This strategy has emerged as particularly necessary given the crowded nature of developed markets in the region, and the reality of low margins in the rest of the markets. Viu and iQIYI International unveiled a Southeast Asia bundle at APOS this week, and Disney+ teamed up with CJ ENM’s Tving in Japan late last year. At the same time, Amazon seeks to present itself as a central aggregator that others can simply connect to.
The strategy has been further developed in India, Prime Video’s largest Asian market, where the company is integrating a free, ad-supported tier into its paid service. With its integration with Amazon MX Player, Prime Video now positions itself as India’s largest streaming service for exclusive originals, marrying its premium subscriber base with free access to MX Player – a combination it sells to creators and advertisers on a scale that can only be rivaled by Reliance’s JioStar.
Shilanji Mukherjee, who heads Prime Video India’s subscription business, celebrated 10 years of service in the country at APOS by highlighting the company’s multilingual approach that focuses on originals first. It said more than 60% of its customers broadcast in four or more languages, and the platform programs in 10 languages, with deep investment in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. India is now home to the largest roster of Prime Video originals outside the US, with 60 percent of its series renewed for further seasons, over 100 titles launched and over 100 more in the pipeline, it added.
Mukherjee also pointed to the recent arrival of Amazon MGM Studios’ local operations and the growing demand for movie rentals on the platform as evidence that Indian viewers are increasingly willing to pay for premium cinema at home.
In Japan, Prime Video’s second-largest market in the Asia-Pacific region, which is also celebrating a decade on the platform, country manager Keisuke Oishi pointed to having to build a subscription streaming habit almost from scratch in 2015, in a market still tied to free-to-air TV.
“We had to create a whole new category of video subscriptions, in a place where most customers were watching free-to-air TV,” he said.
Prime Video Japan has since expanded to include four content pillars – anime, scripted entertainment, unscripted programming and live sports – including live boxing action, which launched in 2022 and has grown to 15 events, as well as a slate of manga adaptations that have connected with local audiences.
Gandhi described the Asia-Pacific region as central to Prime Video’s global plans — not only a “key growth driver,” but a market where new ideas are being generated, such as India’s tiered, mobile-first plans and its multilingual programming, some of which could eventually be rolled out elsewhere.
