Much has been said about Amazon Prime Video’s rental strategy. Time and again, movie buffs have minced no words to express their discontent over some popular movie titles being made available for streaming on the Amazon Prime Video store (besides other platforms) on a rental / pay-per-view basis – even for paid subscribers. And many times, at an overpriced rental cost!
For instance, a relatively new film like ‘Fast X’ is available to rent on the Prime Video rental store at a whopping cost of Rs.399/-, which is quite high by any standards. Although other films like Russel Crowe’s horror flick ‘The Pope’s Exorcist’ can be rented at a comparatively lower cost of Rs.99/-. It’s still not cheap though.
So, what could be the solution to somehow reduce Amazon Prime Video’s high rental costs and concurrently keep the OTT audience happy? One way could be to reduce the rental period and accordingly reduce the rental cost for a title. Let’s explain more.
For instance, the movie ‘Evil Dead Rise’ is currently available to rent on Prime Video Store for a period of 30 days at a cost of Rs.149/-. If Amazon can somehow reduce the price to around Rs.20-25 by reducing the title’s watch period for just one day, or perhaps offers the film on a single-watch basis, then it can do wonders. Most people like to binge-watch a movie in one go and for them, there is no point in paying for those extra 29 days.
As per Amazon Prime Video app, rentals include 30 days to start watching titles and 48 hours to finish the title once started. So, this period can be significantly reduced / modified to 1 day / 6 hours, respectively. And prospective viewers might not stop complaining about Prime Video’s high rental costs if the price comes down to Rs.20-25 per title. Accordingly, Amazon can alter their licensing terms and conditions. And if that happens, it should be a win-win situation for both Amazon Prime Video and Indian OTT viewers.