Citing the popularity of OTT services and the increasing number of subscribers in India, Amazon Prime Video has launched a new Amazon Prime Store in India for both subscribers and non-subscribers to rent out new regional and international movies on the platform. Much like Google’s rental offering on YouTube, Amazon’s transaction-video-on-demand (TVoD) service allows Indian OTT viewers to rent new movies, ranging from international releases to regional ones in Tamil and Telegu, for a limited time. Keep reading to find out how you can rent movies on Amazon Prime Video in India.
Amazon Prime Video Launches Movie Rental Service in India
Amazon Prime Video recently held an event in Mumbai to announce its new TVoD offering via the new Prime Video Store and its plans to launch 40 new titles in India over the next two years.
The new TVoD service on Prime Video relies on a new Prime Video Store on the platform. It can be accessed by Prime Video subscribers, as well as non-subscribers, on the official website. From this library, users can rent new movies like the Robert Pattinson-starrer The Batman, the newest title in the Marvel Cinematic Universe Spiderman: No Way Home, and more for a limited time.
The price ranges from Rs 69 to Rs 499, depending on the movie. Once a user rents out a title, it will be available to watch on Amazon Prime Video for 30 days. However, if they start the rented movie on the platform, viewers will have 48 hours to finish it.
How to Rent Movies on Amazon Prime Video
Now, if you are wondering how you can rent movies from the Prime Video Store, look no further as we have detailed a step-by-step guide for you here. However, it is worth mentioning that the Prime Video TVoD service is available on the web as well as mobile. So, with that out of the way, let’s get into the steps, shall we?
- Open the official Prime Video website using a browser on your laptop or desktop.
- Go to the new “Store” tab from the above navigation bar.
- Choose the movie you want to rent from the different categories in the Store.
- Click on the movie you select and then click the new “Rent” button on the movie detail page.
Note: You will be prompted to sign in to your Amazon account following your rent request.
- Choose the payment method to pay the rent, and voila! You now have a new movie to watch. The streaming platform only supports credit and debit card payments at the moment. There is no Amazon Pay, UPI, or other digital payment option.
This way, you can rent out multiple movies at the same time and be able to keep them for up to 30 days, considering you do not start watching them right away. Moreover, Amazon has categorized the rent-eligible movies in its Store to help users easily find what they want to watch.
“In tune with our vision to become an entertainment hub, we have innovated in the way we offer movies, from films in a post-theatrical early-window to direct-to-service premieres bringing movies to consumers’ living rooms and preferred devices. The launch of the TVoD movie rental service will not just give expanded reach to these films but also give customers more choice in how they want to access and watch content,” Gaurav Gandhi, the Country Head of Amazon Prime Video India, said in a statement.
Other than the TVoD service, Amazon India also announced double its investment in India to bring new titles for consumers. These will range from true-crime, and investigative docudramas, to entertaining and masala Bollywood content.
So, if you are a Prime Video subscriber, do let us know your thoughts about the upcoming content for the platform in the comment below. Also, be sure to check out our top picks for Prime Original movies from right here.
This will be the end of Prime Video for Renting out movies. So now I have to pay for subscription and pay rental ? This will lead more people to download movies from various sites. What a crap move.
Why should paying subscribers have to pay again and rent a movie? So paying subscribers will only get stale content unless they pay rent per view per new content? It’s an anti-subscribers move. This could be the death of Amazon prime video.
What a bad move…. Not for Amazon but for its customers …… We don’t want to rent movies …. We want to watch it for free if we have subscription of their app