Do we have a view on Amazon Prime Video hopping on the cricketing bandwagon. So we asked Dr Bhaskar Das the question for the November 15 edition of Das ka Dum. Read on…
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Q. Amazon Prime Video is now into cricket. But cricket is about rights, and spending huge dollars. Fraught with dangers to the P/L, would you say?
A. It’s a good game to back in the Indian context for sure. The fact is that cricket has maximum following in this country. Amazon Prime would certainly introduce unique experience of the audience including immersive engagement, commentators of repute etc. With their AI/ML power and the power of commerce, if content is synergistically leveraged on top of that and that too in multiple Indian languages, I feel it’s worthy of an investment. At an overall level, the P&L might well be impacted positively, if not directly, but indirectly. And if the CX catches the imagination of the audience, it can create a new benchmark of consuming cricket content. If one takes into account a macro view of Amazon Prime Video’s India business, I feel it’s worth a try. It’s too premature to give a final verdict on the decision, but if one doesn’t try, one doesn’t know. And Amazon need not get too hassled about each P&L in the larger scheme of a business gameplan.