Amazon Prime Video Rental Store Finally Opens Doors in India
Today evening, I opened Prime Video as I normally do to watch some stuff. Suddenly, Battison was glaring down on with a huge ‘Rent’ button.
Ah! It dawned upon me that Amazon Prime Video in India, has finally turned on the rental service. The signs have been there for a few months now. I first noticed this a few months ago when I started seeing movie listings, specifically the awful Matrix Resurrections movie, being listed on Prime Video.
It was just a listed item. There was no way to actually watch it.
Over the next few weeks, I started noticing more such ‘empty’ listings. All four classic Batman movies with BatKeaton, BatKilmer and BatClooney were visible but not available to watch. So, today’s availability of the rental service is an expected event.
In India, the rental thing or PVOD, is a hit and miss.
I mean, we are a developing nation with a large population that still believes that paying more than 500 rupees (roughly 7dollars), is too much to pay for internet service. So, expecting the same everyday Indian to pay anywhere from 100 to 600 rupees to rent a movie, is too much.
During the height of pandemic, some companies did get into the PVOD space. For example, Apple TV has always had its movie rental service. Occasionally, I have rented stuff on that. Most recently I watched Dune, thanks to Apple TV Rental.
This other time, I ended up using a local India based service called, Book My Show Stream to watch Zack Snyder’s Super Long (that’s what she said) 4 hour Justice League movie.
Unfortunately, neither Apple TV nor Book My Show have the scale to offer services at Indian Prices. That is why, Prime Video is going to be the killer. Sure, Battison’s latest caped adventure has an asking price of rupees 499 (roughly 7 dollars) which is too much, even for a crazy Batman fan like me, and I am no stranger to paying 7 dollars for entertainment.
However, Batman seems to be the exception. Other movies are far more cheaper, and far more realistic.
The latest Spiderman adventure, which brings back my favorite Spiderman, Tobey Maguire, is 99 rupees . (roughly 1.2 dollars). The hopelessly awful Matrix Resurrections is 149 rupees. (roughly 2.5 dollars). BatKeaton from 1989 is available for 119 rupees. (roughly 2 dollars). I noticed some movies that are as low as 69 rupees.
69, lol, ah, 69.
Final Note
As is the standard with anything from Prime Video and Apple devices, I cannot rent from within the app any of these movies. I mean, Apple wants its 30 percent cut, and Amazon does not want to pay that.
These big tech companies and their egos.
So, I am forced to rent/pay for stuff on the browser, and then, proceed to access the movies from the app. It’s a minor inconvenience but it does warrants a mention.
All said and done, I am glad Prime Video has thrown its hat into the PVOD Rental space in India. I can finally watch some old movies, and new ones at manageable prices.
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