Amazon looks for potential stake in Indian film, media businesses; Inox says no such deal

Amazon India is in talks with multiple domestic players in film and media distribution including Mumbai-based cinema chain movie theatre chain Inox Leisure, The Indian Express reported. The ecommerce giant is looking to pick up a stake in businesses such as multiplex chains which have been adversely impacted by covid-induced lockdowns.




The US-based behemoth’s move comes in view of its over-the-top (OTT) content business not growing as fast as the company expected. After the initial growth of the first six months last year, its OTT service Amazon Prime has not grown as expected, the report said.

“There are three to four deals in this space being evaluated currently, including some distressed assets. Amazon India is in advanced talks with some of them,” the report quoted unidentified sources as saying.

Inox, however, denied the IE report and said it was factually incorrect. The company added that there were no discussions between the company and Amazon India, news agency Reuters reported.

Shares of Mumbai-headquartered Inox jumped as much as 14.3% to 346.20 rupees in early trade after the report, but pared some gains to last trade 6% up.

Inox, India’s second-largest multiplex chain, has reported a net loss for at least five consecutive quarters since March 2020, when a nationwide coronavirus lockdown was imposed.

India has been a hotbed of competition for companies like Amazon, Netflix and Walt Disney, all of which have been investing significantly to ramp up original streaming content in regional languages.