SynopsisPrime Video is merging its free and paid streaming services in India. This integration aims to significantly boost audience numbers by combining Prime Video's premium viewers with Amazon MX Player's wide reach. The move creates India's largest streaming service for exclusive originals. This unified platform offers creators and advertisers unparalleled scale across free and paid content.Mumbai: Prime Video is looking to increase its audience scale in India by bringing together its advertising-supported video-on-demand (AVOD) and subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) businesses following the integration of Amazon MX Player with Prime Video, Gaurav Gandhi, vice president, APAC & ANZ, Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios, said at an industry event.“In India, we are super excited about bringing our AVOD and SVOD businesses together, substantially increasing audience scale by creating a unified service,” Gandhi said.Amazon announced in May that the Amazon MX Player Android app would continue to operate as a standalone free streaming destination even as the service is integrated with Prime Video.The company said the app would retain a separate presence with a rebranded identity and a dedicated Prime Video experience, while users on iOS, web and connected-TV platforms would be redirected to Prime Video.“In India, we are further broadening our offering on Prime Video, including AVOD alongside our existing SVOD, TVOD & add-on subscription offerings. With the integration of Amazon MX Player, Prime Video is now India's largest streaming service for exclusive originals, bringing together the best selection across our free and paid offerings,” Gandhi said.He said the integration combines Prime Video's premium audience with Amazon MX Player's reach.“It unites Prime Video's premium audience with Amazon MX Player's reach, giving creators and advertisers the unmatched scale of Indian streaming, all in one place,” Gandhi said.Speaking about the broader Asia Pacific region, Gandhi said APAC remains an important market for the company.“APAC is seen as a key driver of growth for Prime Video and a big innovation hub - be it in terms of creating unique offerings for diversified socio-economic segments, like the tiers in India and mobile first plans, as well as building playbooks to serve multi-lingual streamers in the region,” he said.Gandhi said Prime Video follows a common business model across markets while tailoring its approach to local consumer preferences.“We operate a common business model, but we cannot have a common playbook for a diverse region like APAC,” he said.Shilangi Mukherji, director and head SVOD business, Prime Video India, said multilingual programming continues to be central to the company's content strategy in India.“Over 60% of Indian customers stream in 4+ languages. So, it was very important for us to have a programming strategy with selection across multiple languages. While programming in overall 10 languages, we continue to invest deeply in Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu along with our strong global English and international content,” she said.Mukherji said Prime Video has continued to expand its originals slate in the country.“Today, Prime Video India is home to the most-loved IPs, with 60% of our series having returning seasons, making India Originals program the largest outside the US. We have so far launched 100+ Originals and we have over a 100 more in different stages of development and production,” she said.Read More News on...moreless