Amazon is rolling out a major redesign for its video streaming service Prime Video in India starting this week, as the company looks to improve the discovery of its content and highlight its "broad content selection" amid rising adoption of online video among consumers.
The redesign will be initially rolled out to streaming devices, smart televisions and the Android app with plans to roll out to iOS and web apps later this year.
Amazon first announced the revamp last week, which comes ahead of the much-anticipated debut of its big-budget fantasy television series 'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power'.
The new interface features a simplified Netflix-like main navigation menu that drops text-based horizontal tabs in favour of icon-based vertical navigation on the left side of the screen for Home, Store, Find, Live TV and My Stuff.
The Home section will have subsections for movies and television shows while the Store section will have subsections for movie rentals and its video entertainment marketplace Channels.
The latest revamp also includes Top 10 charts in the Home and Store sections that showcase the most popular and trending titles in the region along with bigger carousels, which the company calls Super Carousel, to feature its original television series and movies.
What's particularly noteworthy is that the service now makes it much more clear what content is included in their Prime membership as compared to rentals or add-on subscriptions. Shows and movies included within the Prime membership are marked with a blue checkmark icon while those available to rent or subscribe are marked with a gold shopping bag icon.
The new Find menu allows customers to search for a specific title or explore different genres and collections. It shows live search suggestions as they type and one can also filter these results by genre, language or video quality.
The new Live TV section features a programme guide for live stations such as ManoramaMAX or Shorts TV that allows customers to immediately view any live station to which they are subscribed (through Channels) or sign up for an add-on subscription for a new channel.
As before, 'My Stuff' section will allow customers to keep track of their downloaded videos, watchlists and also manage their Channel subscriptions, along with rented movies.
This redesign comes at a time when the tech giant has been ramping up its original programming in the country. In April 2022, Amazon Prime Video announced a new slate of 41 new original series, movies and co-productions in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu, that will launch over the next 24 months. This is its biggest slate in India to date.
The slate includes 22 original scripted series (15 Hindi series, 5 Tamil series, and 2 Telugu series); four original unscripted series, nine returning series, three original films (two Hindi and one Telugu film), and two Hindi co-productions.
Last week, Amazon Prime Video also struck a content deal with Warner Bros. Discovery to offer a slate of 11 HBO Max Original series and 10 HBO Max original features exclusively on the service for its members in India.
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