Streaming firms eye one-stop shops to build scale and profitability

Mumbai: Amazon's decision to integrate Amazon MX Player with Prime Video, coming after the merger of Disney+ Hotstar and JioCinema into JioHotstar, underscores a broader shift in India's streaming industry towards unified entertainment platforms combining subscription, advertising-led and transactional video offerings.

Streamers are increasingly consolidating services to reduce churn, improve content discovery and keep users within a single platform, while strengthening monetisation through combined free and paid audiences at scale.

The shift comes as streaming platforms grapple with slowing subscriber growth in entertainment, rising content costs and mounting pressure to improve profitability in price-sensitive markets such as India.


Amazon said the integration would combine Prime Video's premium originals with Amazon MX Player's large free content base, significantly expanding its reach across audience segments.

Gaurav Gandhi, vice president, Asia-Pacific and ANZ at Prime Video, said the integration would strengthen the platform's positioning as a comprehensive entertainment destination in India.

Industry executives said Amazon is expected to use MX Player's free user base as a funnel to convert viewers into Prime subscribers over time, while simultaneously expanding its advertising business.

The integration also gives Prime Video a stronger foothold in India's fast-growing AVOD (advertising video-on-demand) market, where platforms are increasingly monetising audiences through advertising rather than relying solely on subscriptions.

Last year, Amazon introduced an ad-supported pricing tier last year, with ad-free viewing available for an additional ₹699 annually or ₹129 a month.

The industry-wide pivot towards advertising-led streaming is also influencing global players. Netflix, which launched ad-supported plans internationally, is learnt to be exploring the rollout of its advertising programme in India by the end of the year, sources familiar with the matter said.

India remains one of the world's fastest-growing streaming markets, driven by affordable mobile data, rising smartphone penetration and increasing digital content consumption. A CLSA report estimated OTT monthly active users at 1.45 billion, while Nielsen's India Internet Report 2025 said the country had over 915 million active internet users.

Rajesh Sethi, partner and leader of media entertainment and sports at PwC India said the convergence of premium streaming and free ad-supported platforms reflects the industry's shift toward hybrid models that balance scale and monetisation. Combining regional reach, subscription content, and commerce-linked advertising can improve user conversion, deepen engagement, diversify revenue streams, and create more sustainable platform economics across varied audience segments, he added.