Amazon Prime Video is getting ready to take on Disney+ Hotstar in India by venturing into a drastically different OTT market – live streaming cricket. More specifically, live streaming cricket played by the Kiwis AKA New Zealand, both men’s and women’s cricket, starting from January 1st 2022. The streaming platform dropped a promo announcement on its official Indian YouTube channel, so check it out below:
Amazon Prime has been releasing sports-related content for some time now, but it has primarily been in the U.S. with the OTT platform providing Thursday night sports coverage. This coverage includes American football, WNBA matchups and a few specific Yankees games for New Yorker subscribers alone. However, if one wanted to access live sports, their subscriber would have to add sports-related channels to their subscription, such as Paramount+, NBA League Pass, and PGA Tour Live. So this will be the first time Amazon Prime Video will be showcasing a live sports match from India.
Disney+ Hotstar has been managing to keep up with Amazon Prime Video and Netflix thanks to some brilliant content by Marvel and Disney Studios. But what’s makes them India’s most subscribed streaming service – their access to the Indian Premier League, all matches played by the Indian national cricket team and all International tournaments which feature the Indian cricket team – which is a huge chunk of the broadcasting market for cricket. With cricket treated as a religion within India, this is a smart decision by Amazon Prime Video.
This promotion was the important announcement Manoj Bajpai had been talking about, yesterday on Amazon Prime Video India’s official Twitter handle. He also managed to be a part of the next promotional video featuring the New Zealand cricket captain, Kane Williamson – which dropped on multiple social media platforms as well. Check out this promo below: