Viewers of the Prime Video streaming platform in India will have to brace for interruptions from advertisements during shows and movies starting next year.
The change, already made in Prime's US operations, is an effort by parent Amazon.com Inc. to fund content investments in a fast growing and fiercely competitive market.
Prime Video aims to have "meaningfully fewer" advertisements than other streaming providers and TV channels, while increasing "investments over a long period of time" on its titles, Amazon said in the statement Wednesday.
There will be an ad-free option as well, the pricing for which will be shared later, according to the statement.
The streaming platform's move comes amid intense competition in India's consolidating streaming market. Reliance and Disney's $8.5 billion mega-merger will capture nearly half of India's streaming users, according to data analytics firm Comscore. India's 1.4 billion consumers and a rapidly expanding entertainment market have players such as Reliance's JioCinema offering titles in India for as little as a penny a day.
Amazon has continued to invest heavily on its platform in India, even while cutting back in other markets. That is because more people are signing up for Amazon Prime in India than anywhere else in the world over the last few years. India is a key geography, Mike Hopkins, senior vice president at Prime Video told reporters in March.
In the US, commercials on its streaming service are expected to generate revenues of $5 billion this year.
No changes will be made to Prime Video's current price this year, Amazon said. It currently offers subscriptions for 799 rupees ($9.5) a year.
