Amazon Prime Video: Navigating Content Controversies in India

This case study examines the challenges faced by Amazon Prime Video in the Indian market, particularly concerning the controversy surrounding the web series 'Tandav'. The case details the industry background, company profile, and competitive landscape, highlighting Amazon Prime Video's growth and strategies in India. It explores the backlash from politicians and the public due to the show's content, which was perceived as religiously insensitive, leading to FIRs and calls for a ban. The case analyzes the company's response, including apologies and postponed releases, and discusses the broader implications for OTT platforms regarding content regulation and creative freedom. It raises questions about the future of content creation on these platforms and the need for strategies to navigate sensitive topics in the Indian market, considering the evolving demands and expectations of the audience and the government.

A Case Study
on
Amazon Prime Video – Way ahead
Submitted to
Prof. Diptiranjan Mahapatra
IIM Sambalpur
Submitted by
Abhinand T V(2020MBA058)
Prashant Mahida(2020MBA078)
Mohak Kumar(2020MBA079)
Naga Sundaram B S(2020MBA081)
Vindhya Shanker(2020MBA111)
Digvijay Singh Bilzawan(2020PHD02)
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Amazon Prime Video
Aparna Purohit, Head of India Original at Amazon Prime Video was awestruck seeing the news
on a fine Sunday morning on a Local news channel. The news, though not from a new domain,
was about a BJP MP writing to the I & B Minister of India to ban ‘Tandav’, a recently released
web-show on Amazon Prime Video.
It has not been new for an OTT platform to face some criticism on the contents of the shows
after their release. The criticisms were mainly focused on the social media handles and in the
review column for the shows. Being a veteran in the creative industry Aparna was well aware of
the trend and was expecting some kind of heat on the show for its bold and abusive contents. So
why was she bamboozled by the news!
The accusations, as mentioned in the news, were that the show has disrespected the Hindutva by
demeaning the Hindu Gods. This statement made her question in which episode and how? She
sat down in a chair at her home office and began recalling the review sessions of the show. It has
been a policy of the Amazon Prime Video to allow freedom in creativity to its content partners
but at the same time it has always been made clear to be very vigilant while dealing with
contents related to religion, culture, history and caste as these are the hotspots for Indian Politics.
What was more troubling is that each show was reviewed by Amazon Prime Video in presence
of its director to make sure that proper care has been taken while handling the hotspot topics. So
why was this issue not informed to her by the reviewing team? Is the content really demeaning or
just an excuse material for trouble makers? Or was the review team not well qualified? Where
the mistake has happened and what will be its effects on the show’s collections were the next
series of thoughts that troubled her.How should she move ahead and plan to tackle this?
She was occupied in her thoughts when she heard her phone ringing. It was Mr. Gaurav Gandhi,
director and head of Amazon Prime Video,India on the line. She recollected her thoughts and
attended the call.
Hi Aparna! Did you see the morning news today? Aparna knew she would be bombarded by
many such calls and this was just a beginning. She replied, “Yes Gaurav, I saw the news
regarding the controversy and demand of a ban regarding Tandav”. Ok, so you are familiar with
the events going on. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but I must inform you that I received
news from my sources that multiple FIRs against the show creators and our team have been filed
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across the country. Have you thought about how we should approach the matter? Aparna didn’t
know what to say. She replied, “Well Gaurav I haven’t reached a conclusion yet as it is news to
me but we need to investigate the episode and hear from the show's director. Also, some sort of
apology will be needed to keep the show running and blow down the heat. I agree, let's meet at
lunch with the director today and discuss the matter. Till then please review the episode, and
make a quick report on the matter. Ok Gaurav is what she could reply and they both hanged the
phone.
Aparna knew that the matter would somehow be contained. What was troubling her was the
pattern of similar events occurring across ott platforms. The OTT platform contents were always
free-spirited and this nature was responsible for the early adopters adopting them. But in the past
one year lots of complaints from politicians regarding shows and them demeaning something or
the other have surfaced. Is the industry changing? Do we need to work the same as the cinemas
worked? Will the originality and freshness disappear from the content? Where are we heading
towards in terms of content that can or should be given a green flag?
Industry Background
The OTT industry has been booming in India over the last few years, with growth of 35% year
on year. Increased internet penetration and the rising number of smartphone users have added
fuel to the OTT platform.The OTT media revenue is expected to have a growth to 167 billion
U.S. dollars by 2025. Expected Growth is 10 times from 2010 to 2019. Netflix is the market
leader having more than 200 million subscribers worldwide. The main players in the market are
Netflix, Hulu, Amazon prime, and Disney Plus.
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Company Background
Amazon prime is founded in the year 2005, it is a subscription model platform available in many
countries which is a subsidiary of Amazon. It includes services including fast delivery services
like delivery in one or two days, music, video, e-books, gaming and shopping.
As per the reports of Statista, in 2020 Amazon prime video is ranked third among the companies
after Netflix and Disney and it occupies second place in the rate of growth of the platform. Since
the market is expanding so fast, demand increased for contents and the company started
producing its own contents and in 2020, the budget for video creation was 7bn dollars. The
positioning of Amazon prime services are unique in the market, customers are already using the
services from shopping to cloud computing. Amazon prime is expecting to have a user base of
180 million subscribers all over the world by 2026. By 2020, they have acquired 117 million
subscribers all over the world and they had a revenue of 25 billion dollars from the amazon’s
subscription services.
Growth in India
Amazon Prime Video launched in 2011 and it was sold as a bundle along with the prime
subscription. People already having the Prime subscription didn't need to pay again. It came with
an annual subscription of Rs 499 unlike Netflix which was charging Rs 500 a month. Hence,
even after entering a year after Netflix was launched, it was a huge success as people already
used Prime service for shopping on Amazon and this was added in the subscription which no
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other company has ever done that a streaming service is bundled to an instant e-commerce
delivery offered by Amazon. Hence, customers already using Amazon services became the
potential customers for Prime Video. Globally, India’s market is the fastest growing market for
Amazon Prime Video and investments are being focused to expand in India by adding more TV
Series, Shows, and Movies on the platform. APV also recently partnered with Airtel for bringing
an economical Mobile-Only Plan for the Indian users that would help it to reach to a broader
audience. From the last 4 years, APV has seen a significant growth in India. Due to more than 10
languages supported content, it is being watched in 4000+ cities and towns across the country. In
order to produce regional content it has also tied up with Indian Television.
Also, Amazon hosts its Prime Day on 6-7th of August and during a statement it was said that
during this time customers who became Prime Members had doubled as compared to the
previous year. A report by Times of India said that Amazon did a sales of $600M in 48 hours
during this period and saw huge profits during the pandemic as more and more customers
subscribed to Amazon Prime Video.
Competitors
Some of the prominent OTT players in India other than Amazon Prime Video are as follows
Netflix
It is an American media service provider and production company. Its primary business revenue
is generated through its subscription model. It provides online streaming services and provides
films, series and shows produced by the firm itself.
Disney + Hotstar
Disney+Hotstar is the collaboration between Disney and Hotstar under which the current Hotstar
streaming platform is providing all Disney movies and shows in local Indian languages which is
attracting Disney content viewers and people who prefer watching content in their regional
languages. It has gained 28 million paid subscribers which can be treated as a main strength for
the service whereas their subscription charges are still increasing.
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Zee5
Zee 5 is a streaming service provider run by Zee entertainment service provider. It provides free
and paid services. Under paid services you need to pay the charges after which it gives you
access to 1000+ movies and 90+ TV channels.
Jio TV
An app based service which provides Tv channels and programs to consumers on the
smartphones and tablets only. The Jio sim card users are close to 400 million users and Jio TV is
free for all the Jio account holders giving them a huge chance of attracting all these consumers.
AltBalaji
It provides original content for Indian consumers. It focuses on getting famous celebrities,
writers and appreciated directors to get quality content. It has a subscriber count of 3 million.
Sony Liv
It is part of the Sony entertainment network having access to 18 years of content from Sony TV,
Sony SAB, Sony Max, Sony Ten and Animax. Some of the shows from these channels are
evergreen favourites of Indian audiences. It has close to 25 million subscribers.
Assets of Amazon Prime Video
Amazon Prime Video, being involved in OTT content delivery, does not hold tangible assets in
large quantities because of the nature of its delivery. The company needs innovation, equity,
customer base and a large variety of product mix for online streaming content and anyone with
an active net and suitable device can access them across the globe. This is one of the major
advantages of ott platforms that no huge requirements in tangible assets is required. Few of the
assets for Amazon Prime video are listed below-
Intangible Assets
 Partnership with content makers
 Available content genres and streaming content(Product Mix)
 Global presence
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 Brand equity
 User base
 Innovation
Tangible Assets
 Platform- Website/App
 Digital Technologies
 Cloud storage
 Human capital
The problem faced and Moving ahead
It is important for Amazon that India plays a key role in its conquering streaming video business
around the globe. But its Prime video series named “Tandav” is facing backlash from politicians,
and the general public. The show contains religiously insensitive content. Hindu gods were
shown in an undignified manner in some of the scenes.
This resulted in a complaint lodged to ban the show by BJP MP Manoj Kotak directly with the
Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javedkar. This was followed by a letter by The
Confederation of All India Traders to stop the streaming of the show. FIRs against the cast and
show makers were filed at many local police stations and was followed by anger and criticism
from the general public of the nation. Several statements in clarification of the content were
made by the director along with implementation on the guidance of the Ministry in the scenes of
the show. An apology was also released by the cast & crew for hurting the religious sentiments.
Amid these controversies, Prime Video postponed one of its premiere shows, ‘The Family Man’
whose release was planned in February, 2021 multiple before postponing it indefinitely till
summer.
OTT platforms have attracted several controversies for adult and abusive contents from the start
but never before has an OTT platform faced a nation wise opposition from the public and
politicians. Another web show of Amazon, Mirzapur also attracted controversy where SC issued
notice to Amazon Prime.
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Is this a one genre dilemma or a sign of many such incidents to follow as the attention of the
general public has transferred greatly towards the OTT platforms to seek entertainment during
the pandemic lockdown period. Should Prime Videos continue to give free hand to content
creators or some directives need to be implemented in regards to the type of content released. Is
the x-factor of OTT platforms that attracted audiences will present itself as a hindrance in growth
of the same. If changes are needed, then what should be done so that neither the creativity gets
impacted nor does it give rise to any controversy. What is the right step moving forward??
Exhibits:
Exhibit 1:
Regional Language covered:
Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Bengali, Kannada, Hindi, Punjabi and Gujarati
Exhibit 2:
Content Partners in India-
1. Vishal Bharadwaj and Vidhu Vinod Chopra for Web Shows
2. Excel Media and Entertainment
3. Vishesh Films for Movies and TV Serials
4. Dharma Productions
5. D2R Films
6. Paramount
7. T Series
8. Magicbricks
9. Lionsgate
Exhibit 3
Competitors and Market Share
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https://qz.com/india/1897888/netflix-amazon-beat-disney-hotstar-amid-india-covid-19-
lockdown/
Exhibit 4
Timeline of Events
Exhibit 5
Internet users in India
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https://image-src.bcg.com/Images/Entertainment-Goes-Online_tcm21-208006.pdf
Exhibit 6: Additional stats regarding Amazon Prime Video
Number of original content titles produced by Amazon prime video worldwide from 2012 to
2019
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Annual Technology and content expenses of Amazon from 2016 to 2020
Video content budget of Amazon worldwide from 2013 to 2020
References
https://www.primevideo.com/help/ref=atv_hp_nd_cnt?nodeId=GD8VJD2EDJ2GSNEC
https://www.primevideo.com/help/ref=atv_hp_cnt?_encoding=UTF8&nodeId=202095500
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https://www.statista.com/topics/4740/amazon-prime-video/
https://market.us/statistics/online-video-and-streaming-sites/amazon-prime-video/
https://observer.com/2020/08/netflix-subscribers-stock-amazon-prime-video-subscribers/
https://image-src.bcg.com/Images/Entertainment-Goes-Online_tcm21-208006.pdf
https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/industries/technology%20media%20and
%20telecommunications/media%20and%20entertainment/our%20insights/when%20the
%20content%20consumer%20is%20king/when-the-content-consumer-is-king.pdf
https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/McKinsey/Industries/Technology%20Media%20and
%20Telecommunications/Telecommunications/Our%20Insights/Overwhelming%20OTT
%20Telcos%20growth%20strategy%20in%20a%20digital%20world/Overwhelming-OTT-
telcos-growth-strategy-in-a-digital-world.pdf
https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/technology-media-and-telecommunications/our-insights/
overwhelming-ott-telcos-growth-strategy-in-a-digital-world/de-de
https://www.bcg.com/en-cl/news/20november2018-unlocking-indias-5-billion-ott-market-
potential
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