Amazon Prime Video has partnered with Airtel to offer a mobile-only version of Prime Video, which bundles tariffs and Prime Video Mobile at a minimum price of ₹89, undercutting Netflix’s mobile-only tariff of ₹199. India is the first country to have a mobile-only Prime Video plan, Amazon said in a press release. The ₹89 plan offers 6GB of data for 28 days, whereas a ₹299 plan offers 1.5GB a day with Prime Video mobile. Gaurav Gandhi, director and country general manager, Amazon Prime Video India, said that the service had “viewership coming from over 4,300 towns and cities” adding, “We believe that the Mobile Edition plan will further accelerate Prime Video’s adoption in India.”
Postpaid bundling on telecom plans generally involves higher-value plans with more features, but prepaid bundling with a sachet-like approach to offering OTT access is less generous. But this kind of arrangement gives loss-leaders like Amazon Prime Video a bit of an advantage in terms of commanding users’ time and attention (if not much of their cash). It also potentially allows Airtel to upsell customers who have had a taste and want more of a service, or other services added on. Airtel has other such curious bundling strategies, such as offering 2GB data packs with bags of potato chips.
While Netflix — the other global streaming service with India ambitions — also bundles a ₹199 plan with several telecom plans, none do it at this price point, underscoring Amazon’s aggressive efforts to pull users into its ecosystem. Users who want Prime Music and Amazon Prime’s e-commerce delivery benefits would have to shell out for a full subscription, Amazon said, or pay for a costlier monthly prepaid plan costing ₹349.
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