Amazon is rebranding its free ad-supported streaming service Amazon miniTV as Amazon MX Player, following its acquisition of certain assets from rival streaming platform MX Player.
Moneycontrol observed that the company has changed the branding of miniTV on X, the social media platform previously known as Twitter, with the account bio now saying "Amazon MX Player is available on multiple surfaces — Amazon shopping app, Prime Video, Fire TV, Xiaomi Smart TVs, Google TV, Play Store and App Store". The account also released a video on September 18 to highlight the rebranding of the service.
The service's website and mobile app, however, continues to carry "miniTV" branding at the time of writing this article.
In response to Moneycontrol's queries, Amazon confirmed that its India unit has acquired certain assets of MX Player, including its apps and select content from its library.
“Now that the transaction is closed, we are excited to offer content from both MX Player and miniTV to customers of both services, and we look forward to introducing new titles and features in the very near future” an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement.
The company stated that, over time, it intends to consolidate all content and streaming experiences into a single app.
Amazon-MX Player deal saga
In June, Amazon announced signing an agreement to acquire some assets from the Times Internet-owned streaming platform, signalling consolidation in India's increasingly competitive video-streaming market. The company said at the time that the transaction was not yet complete.
Amazon was in discussions to acquire MX Player, a prominent player in the country’s ad-supported streaming space, since early 2023. While it called off the deal around July 2023, talks resumed in recent months.
Sources had earlier told Moneycontrol that the deal valued MX Player at less than $100 million, a significant dip from the $500-million valuation when it raised $111 million in a round led by Chinese internet giant Tencent in 2019.
MX Player was first developed by South Korea-based app publisher J2 Interactive as a local video playback app in 2011.
The app gained immense popularity among consumers since it supported a wide range of video formats on affordable smartphones, clocking over 500 million downloads by 2018.
Times Internet acquired the app for Rs 1,000 crore ($140 million) in 2018. This acquisition was part of the company’s efforts to re-enter India's video-streaming space after a previous failed attempt with BoxTV that shut down in 2016.
Bolstering streaming ambitions
The transaction is expected to bolster Amazon’s streaming ambitions in India, a crucial market for its expansion, due to the rising digital video consumption among consumers in the world’s second largest internet market.
Apart from miniTV, Amazon also operates Prime Video, a subscription-based streaming service which is bundled with its Prime offering.
The move comes at a time when Walt Disney is gearing up to merge its India unit with Reliance Industries as part of a joint venture announced on February 28. The transaction combines the businesses of Viacom18 and Star India to create one of India's largest TV and digital streaming platforms. The Competition Commission of India approved the Rs 70,350-crore merger last month.
With this, two of India’s largest streaming platforms — Disney+ Hotstar, which leads the country’s subscription-based video streaming market, and JioCinema, a prominent player in the ad-supported video streaming market — will have a single owner.
The combined entity will capture about 85 percent of India’s video-streaming audience, according to analysts at brokerage firm Bernstein. Other players in this space include Netflix, Zee5 and Sony LIV.
Read: JioCinema crossed 15 mn paying subscribers in just 100 days of new pricing plans, says Mukesh Ambani
Advertising push
MiniTV is also a key part of Amazon’s strategy to boost its digital advertising revenue in the country.
The company has said marquee brands such as Mamaearth, Realme, Nissan, Lenovo and WhatsApp have either sponsored shows on miniTV, done brand integrations within shows or purchased advertising inventory.
The asset purchase of MX Player, which has deep penetration in the country’s smaller cities and towns, will also likely help with Amazon’s rural push at a time when it is involved in an intensifying e-commerce battle against Walmart-owned Flipkart.
Earlier in the day, Amazon announced that a 25-year company veteran Samir Kumar will lead the e-commerce giant's operations in the country from October 1. Kumar takes over from Manish Tiwary who abruptly resigned as the India manager in August. Kumar will continue to lead Amazon's consumer businesses in the Middle East, South Africa and Turkey.
Disclaimer: Moneycontrol is a part of the Network18 group. Network18 is controlled by Independent Media Trust, of which Reliance Industries is the sole beneficiary.
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