India key geography for us: Mike Hopkins on Prime Video's new slate of 69 titles

Mumbai: More people signed up for Prime Video in India than any other country outside of the US in recent years, Head of Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios Mike Hopkins has said.

India is one of the key geographies for Amazon, Hopkins said on Tuesday at a star-studded Prime Video Presents event here that saw the announcement of the streamer's 2024 slate of 69 projects including shows, movies, documentaries and returning titles across languages and regions.

"I have a couple of stats to just explain how things are going here. The first one is that for the last several years, outside of the US, more people have signed up for Prime in India than anywhere else in the world. That's pretty good growth.

"The other thing about India is that more people started subscribing to Prime Video here than any other benefit... In the last year, India had the highest percentage of Prime members stream Prime Video than any other country in the world," Hopkins said during a chat with event host Karan Johar.

"We look at that next 250 million subscribers that we're going to acquire, which are definitely going to come from outside the United States. We're not going to be able to achieve that unless we do a really good job for customers in India, so India is a key geography for us," Hopkins said.

He also spoke about the exponential growth that streaming has had in India despite being in the market only for the last few years.

Hopkins said "Farzi", "Indian Police Force" and "The Family Man" are among the shows that have worked well internationally.

"I've heard many people say this week that more people are streaming TV. And they're watching it on linear television and satellite... What's remarkable about it is that streaming has only really existed for seven or eight years," he said.

According to Hopkins, Indian content is making its presence felt on a global level. Last year, he said, Indian titles were watched in over 200 countries and territories worldwide.

He said that while the streamer commissions programming in different parts of the world, the core philosophy has always been that the content should first work with the audience it is made for.

"(In India,) we've really knocked it out of the park. Some of the shows that are working the best for us internationally are 'Farzi', 'Indian Police Force', 'The Family Man' and many more. So we couldn't be more thrilled with what's going on here." The India slate announcement featured returning titles such as "Mirzapur 3", "Panchayat 3" and "Pataal Lok 2" as well as new shows and movies like "Call Me Bae", "Be Happy" and "Subedar".

The slate also featured titles such as "Citadel: Honey Bunny", "Daldal", which marks Bhumi Pednekar's OTT debut, Ankur Tewari and Swanand Kirkire-created "Bandwale" and "Daring Partners" starring Tamannaah Bhatia and Diana Penty.