It has been more than 5 years now, since Amazon came up with Amazon Prime Videos to enter into the OTT Race however, in the recent months Amazon has again come up with a new OTT Platform, known as Amazon Mini TV. Now, many of us might still be unfamiliar with this new OTT Platform, so let me tell you this in the very starting only that there is no separate application for Amazon Mini TV on the Google Play Store or on the Apple Play Store either. The very same Amazon Shopping Application, which most of us are using has the option to switch to Amazon Mini TV, which means that you can watch the content of Amazon Mini TV via your Amazon Shopping App only.
Well, a part from not having a separate application, the Amazon Mini TV is also free for all. Therefore, all the content on Amazon Mini TV is very much free to watch and there is no Prime Membership required or any other kind of Subscription Package to watch the content on this platform! It is a like a gift from the Amazon Team and they have taken care of Two Impactful Issues concerning the smartphone users with their move of launching the Amazon Mini TV. Well, firstly the smartphone users will not be given the burden of exhausting any more of their phone storage space as no separate installation of the application is required. While the other thing is that, the customers would not be charged anything for purchasing the subscription this particular OTT Platform.
Well, if you are thinking that being completely free, the Amazon Mini TV is like YouTube then you are so very wrong that too on two fronts! Firstly, YouTube is not entirely free; there are several contents on YouTube, which one can view only after paying the rent amount or by having YouTube Premium Subscription. Lastly, YouTube allows the uploading of the content by its users, while there is no such option available in the Amazon Mini TV; the users cannot upload their content on Amazon Mini TV at all. Well now, we all can easily conclude that the Amazon Mini TV is in no way competing with YouTube. So, with whom is the Amazon Mini TV competing? What was the need of Amazon Mini TV, when Amazon Prime Video already existed?
For starters, many are speculating that the reason why the amazon team has introduced Mini TV despite having Prime Video is because there are several contents, which cannot be all be made available on the Amazon Prime Video Platform. This implies that the amazon team is continuously receiving some unlimited amount of content from the content creators, which may not all too good to be placed on Prime Video but not bad enough to be completely rejected too. Therefore, the amazon team has introduced Mini TV in order to accommodate those contents, which cannot make to Prime Video. Moreover, if this is the real reason then it is not bad at all, as the content creators are not getting fully rejected and also getting a secondary platform to showcase their content.
Will the Amazon Mini TV become a game changer or not is something that one cannot say right now at this point of time, as it is still too early to comment. Let the Amazon Mini TV get at least a couple of years before we start judging its position among the other OTT Platforms. However, one thing is very much sure that Mini TV will grab the eyes of the audience in the coming days, as it is available with real ease to the customers. Moreover, Amazon Mini TV is also a space for content creators to carter their content to a larger section of the audience and make it big for themselves. Overall, Amazon Mini TV looks like a win-win for all.
Another real interesting fact about the Amazon Mini TV is that this particular OTT Platform is available only for the customers of India. There are a few outstanding differences between the Amazon Mini TV and the Amazon Prime Video, let us take a look over them now –
1) Amazon Mini TV is a free, ad-supported video streaming service within the Amazon Shopping app and is available on Android or iOS phones. Amazon customers do not need a separate application to access and enjoy Mini TV content. Whereas the Amazon Prime Video is a subscription based video on-demand service that requires a Prime subscription.
2) The Amazon Prime Video content includes award winning Amazon Originals, latest movies and TV shows, in English and 9 Indian languages. In addition, the Prime Members can access Prime Video content through web portal as well as through the Prime Video Application. Whereas, no such huge and award winning shows are available on the Amazon Mini TV and it cannot be accessed via web portal.
There is no doubt that the Amazon Prime Video is having a superiority over the Amazon Mini TV as of now but let us wait and watch, if the tables will turn in the coming days or not or at least the Mini TV will get some bigger shows or not in the days to come!
Written By NEEL PREET – Author of the Books, Voice From The East (2016); Journey With Time Place And Circumstances (2018) & Indian Defence Files (2021).
