BBC Player, BBC Kids debut in India on Prime Video Channels

BBC Player and BBC Kids are available as a package for Rs 599/year, with BBC Kids priced separately at Rs 199/year. Both BBC Player and BBC Kids will be available as add-on subscription services on Prime Video Channels.

BBC Studios South Asia VP of Distribution Stanley Fernandes told ET that India is the fifth country where the company is launching BBC Player. Currently, it is available in Singapore, Malaysia, Germany, and Poland.

Fernandes said BBC Player will have a multi-genre content line-up across scripted, non-scripted, travel, and comedy. BBC Kids will provide programming for children aged up to 12 years.

While BBC Player and BBC Kids have been launched as B2B2C services in partnership with Amazon, the company is open to going direct-to-consumer in the Indian market.

“We want to grow our audiences with Prime Video Channels and then branch out. At some point, we would want to go direct-to-consumer. That is part of our global strategy,” said Fernandes.He also stated that Prime Video Channels provide the required technology, viewership, and scalability to BBC Player and BBC Kids.With the launch of BBC Player and BBC Kids on its platform, Prime Video Channels has expanded its content offering to 20 services.

Vivek Srivastava, the India Head of Prime Video Channels, said multiple global streaming services have chosen to launch and expand their reach in India with Prime Video Channels.

“Prime Video Channels has seen exponential growth in India, with people subscribing to Channels of their choice from the length and breadth of the country,” he added.

Fernandes said BBC Studios has a library of 25,000 hours of content and it also releases 2,500 hours of fresh content annually.

“The launch in India will include the immediate availability of BBC Kids as well as 2,000 hours of the best scripted and unscripted content from BBC Studios,” he added.

Fernandes explained that launching the two services in collaboration with Prime Video Channels made sense because BBC Studios and Prime Video had been long-term collaborators in the country.

“We have built a good audience base on Prime Video, and the audience that sits on the platform has been accepting of our content,” he stated.