Launched as a part of the Amazon shopping app, Amazon miniTV has something for everyone. It provides users with a range of bite-sized entertainment content, including fresh web series, reality shows, short films, video sketches, international shows, comedy shows, tech news, and more. The ad-supported streaming service offers a diverse selection of videos across various genres, enhancing the overall user experience within the Amazon app.
The one thing we Indians love is availing a service for FREE. And Amazon miniTV lets users enjoy a variety of engaging content without incurring any additional costs, making it a convenient and accessible entertainment option for Amazon users in India. This model of the platform has proven to be working really well among the masses and is definitely worth exploring.
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A study suggests that people spend 45 minutes per streaming session on miniTV. Despite being launched only 2.5 years ago, the platform’s award-winning content is already a hit among the young adult audience. This has a lot to do with popular shows that resonate with their lives, such as Half CA, Highway Love, Campus Beats, Slum Golf, Hip Hop India, and more.
Another benefit that works in miniTV’s favour is that it is easy to find and free, needing no subscription. The video streaming platform is conveniently nestled within Amazon’s shopping app and is also available on Fire TV and Android TV. miniTV’s content has also seen keen interest from some of India’s leading advertisers such as Mamaearth, Realme, Nissan, Lenovo, WhatsApp and more.
Amogh Dusad, the head of content at miniTV, divulged into makes this streaming service stand out in India’s competitive video-on-demand space.
Know The Man Behind It
Amogh Dusad began his career over 20 years ago at a time when internet audiences did not have multiple on-demand choices. Today, people are not just watching content but engaging with it. Binging has become a part of most people’s daily schedule. Before joining Amazon miniTV in 2022, Dusad worked for brands such as NDTV Imagine and Sony Pictures Network India in key content leadership roles.
At Sony, he was responsible for making Kaun Banega Crorepati a ‘lean forward’ experience by introducing a mobile gaming element. The insights and learnings he garnered from being a pioneer of digital-meets-entertainment content make Dusad the ideal captain to steer the content ship at miniTV.
miniTV: The Star Startup
While miniTV is presently an India-focused offering, parallels can be drawn between miniTV and Amazon’s ‘Freevee’, a free ad-supported streaming TV service operational in countries such as North America, the UK and Germany. Dusad says that the choice of the name miniTV is not coincidental: the streaming app is positioned as your free pocket TV. It operates like a startup.
“The way we’ve gone about building our service and expanding it, there’s a lot of the tenor of young organisations that move forward quickly,” Dusad remarks. It helps that miniTV is a part of all Amazon touchpoints. “One great thing about Amazon is the parallel startup energy that we experience when we get into anything new,” he says.
The Business Model
The model miniTV follows is serving relevant ads to customers when they are watching shows on the platform that engage them with fresh stories across multiple genres. miniTV provides a secure and dependable stream of content, ensuring advertisers have a reliable and focused platform for their promotions – something that isn’t possible with video streaming services that largely offer user-generated content.
Marquee brands such as Mamaearth, Realme, Nissan, Lenovo, WhatsApp and more have sponsored shows on miniTV, done rich brand integrations within shows and purchased advertising inventory too. “It’s important to note that we’re not just serving consumers, we’re serving advertisers too by helping brands connect with relevant audiences,” Amogh Dusad adds.
Serving Viewers & Brands Alike
The core of what will make or break any entertainment channel is the number of people who are willing to devote their share of time to the content. “I think it’s important for miniTV to continue expanding to new audiences. A lot of brands want to reach certain cohorts of audiences and want to be part of our narratives,” says the content head. Along with overall reach, miniTV also looks at user engagement, average watch times and customer repeat rates.
Content Beyond Borders
The platform predominantly streams original content that is in Hindi and Hinglish. It also recently launched popular shows from Korea, China, Spain and Turkey which are now dubbed in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. This is a whole separate category titled: Imported. “We didn’t create ‘Korean’ as a category; we created ‘Imported’ because we thought the time was right to bring the best of premium content from across the world to our customers in local languages,” Amogh explains.
What Will 2024 Bring?
miniTV has a slightly different way of looking at their users’ age demographic. “We don’t look at 18-34 years as one demographic. An 18-year-old will have vastly different dreams, aspirations, and wants from a 25-year-old, even if they live in the same household,” Dusad mentioned. This thought-provoking insight is reflected in miniTV’s programming.
While shows like Gutar Gu attract younger adult audiences, Half CA talks to chartered accountancy aspirants, and Campus Beats caters to adult university students. Also, there are shows such as Rakshak, Slum Golf, Half Love Half Arranged and Hack Crimes that have struck the right chord with young adults.
“Good content travels across demographics and geographies, but it helps when your shows are created with a specific audience in mind.” This customer-first approach enables miniTV to offer specific brands tailor-made integration or sponsorship ideas and helps them commission projects for specific audiences. The streaming platform plans to add 900 hours of exclusive content across genres and categories in 2024, catering to different viewing preferences.
Upcoming Shows
Amazon miniTV wants to keep building its innovative original shows while creating franchises of popular shows. Gutar Gu is returning with Season 2 and so Crushed will be back with Season 4. For stories that don’t have a direct sequel, Amogh Dusad and his team are making anthologies. For example, Highway Love is returning for another season but with a different theme and setting. Dehati Ladke, based on a best-selling Hindi novel by the same name, was recently launched on miniTV starring Kusha Kapila.
MiniTV’s success marks a significant stride in Amazon’s multifaceted approach to meeting the diverse needs of its audience in the ever-expanding digital realm. As this innovative streaming service continues to evolve, it exemplifies Amazon’s commitment to delivering not just products but also premium entertainment seamlessly to its users. Which show/movie will you binge on next?
