Amazon has finalized its acquisition of rival Indian streamer MX Player.
Financial terms of the deal haven’t been announced, but numerous local press sites have pegged the deal at around $100M. This is a consider amount less than seller Times India paid for MX Player back in 2019.
Amazon has merged its free-streaming service Amazon MiniTV with MX Player to form Amazon MX Player, which is already live and has a combined 250 million users, it claims.
The new streamer combines the two libraries and offer shows such as Aashram, Dharavi Bank and Campus Diaries, along with Korean, Mandarin and Turkish show dubbed into Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.
MX Player was launched in Korea back in 2011 as a media player for mobiles, allowing users to download and watch videos offline. Times India bough the app in 2018 and the following year switched its focus to streaming, just as the online video boom really began in the country. Though MX Player became the most popular service in the country, most of its users were enticed by its free proposition and making revenues has been tough since.
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Amazon said it would continue to invest in originals and returners following the acquisition.
“Amazon and MX Player obsess over customer experience and are both believers in the future of free entertainment,” said Karan Bedi, Head of Amazon MX Player. “Being part of Amazon will let us continue to delight millions of viewers across the country.
“We will offer high-quality entertainment and streaming experiences faster than we could have done independently, while continuing to keep the service free. This merger will mean great things for our viewers, advertisers and content partners, and will let us bring MX Player to even more people in India.”
“Today we are bringing together the vast reach of MX Player, with the advertising tech that leverages Amazon’s billions of customer signals,” said Girish Prabhu, Head of Amazon Advertising India. “It’s about enabling all brands, not just the ones selling on Amazon, to reach and deliver relevant advertising to a very large and engaged base across India. It’s about directly measuring outcomes from the very top of the funnel to the very bottom.”
On the paid-for front, Amazon operates Prime Video in the country.
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