Amazon is folding its free streaming service Amazon MX Player into Prime Video in India, a move the company says will create the country's largest streaming platform by combining subscription, ad-supported, transactional, and add-on content under a single app.
The integration is expected to complete within the next few months, according to Variety. When finished, Prime Video will offer both ad-free viewing for paying members and a wider free library for non-subscribers, with a direct path to upgrade to a Prime membership built into the experience. On Android, the Amazon MX Player app will continue operating under a rebranded identity. Users on iOS, connected TV, and the web will be redirected to Prime Video, where content from both services will be available.
The numbers behind the deal are significant. Prime Video currently has around 20 million paying subscribers in India, while MX Player has somewhere close to 300 million monthly users, according to Deadline. That scale puts the merged platform in direct competition with JioHotstar, the Reliance Industries and Disney-run service that currently leads the Indian market.
Amazon assembled MX Player in 2024 by acquiring select assets from the legacy MX Player brand and combining them with its Amazon miniTV operation. That service built its audience through locally rooted originals, reality formats, microdramas, and a catalog of dubbed international content. Now those titles sit alongside Prime Video's flagship Indian series, including Mirzapur, Paatal Lok, and new hit Matka King, as well as MX Player originals like Aashram, Bhaukaal, and Raktanchal.
Gaurav Gandhi, Vice President for Asia-Pacific and ANZ at Prime Video, framed the merger as an expansion of the service's content reach. "Our focus at Prime Video has always been to bring authentic stories that reflect the diversity of our audiences," Gandhi said. "With the integration of Amazon MX Player's expansive original slate and audience scale, our collective offering is bigger and stronger than ever — making Prime Video the one-stop destination for quality entertainment, for every customer in the country."
Girish Prabhu, Vice President and Head of Amazon Ads India, pointed to the advertising opportunity created by the unified platform. "We've created a single streaming destination that reaches audiences across the entire spectrum — from free ad-supported viewers to Prime members — enabling true full-funnel advertising on an unprecedented scale," Prabhu said.
The merger news landed the same morning that Prime Video announced a second season of Matka King, its Indian gambling crime drama set in 1960s Bombay. The Vijay Varma-starring series became Prime Video's most-watched new scripted show of the past two years after its April 17 global launch, trending in the Top 10 across 37 countries and ranking first in 17 of them within its opening week, Deadline reported. No plot details for Season 2 have been released. Prime Video said in a statement: "The game of Matka is far from over, and neither is Brij Bhatti's reign. Matka King Season 2 is where the real stake begins."
Matka King was created and written by Abhay Koranne and Nagraj Popatrao Manjule, with Manjule also directing. The eight-episode first season was produced by Siddharth Roy Kapur, Popatrao Manjule, Gargi Kulkarni, Ashwini Sidwani, and Ashish Aryan under the banners of Roy Kapur Films, Aatpat, and SMR Entertainment. Varma led the ensemble alongside Kritika Kamra, Sai Tamhankar, and Gulshan Grover, among others.
Prime Video's India strategy has been a consistent focus for Amazon leadership, with executives frequently citing the country as one of the biggest drivers of new subscribers globally. Earlier this year, the service unveiled a 69-title originals slate. The next confirmed release on that slate is System, an Indian courtroom thriller with a May 22 global release date.
