India doubles the Commissions of international formats

The number of international formats commissioned for the Indian market has doubled each successive quarter through 2021, Ampere Analysis assured in its latest report. According to the research firm, most stem from local streaming services, but in August 2021 both Amazon Prime Video and Netflix commissioned their own local versions of successful international franchises in India.

In Amazon’s case, this was “LOL - Enga Siri Paappom,” a Tamil version of its original game show “LOL: Last One Laughing,” originally adapted from the Japanese format, and the second version of the series in India so far. Netflix, meanwhile, following its commissioning of an expansive slate of original Indian content earlier in March 2021, has announced a local Hindi remake of the 2015 scripted comedy series format “Call My Agent”.

Netflix and Amazon, however, only contributed two out of the 11 international format commissions in India in the third quarter of this year. In July 2021, ITV Studios commissioned a Hindi version of its quiz game show “The Big Picture” for Viacom 18’s Colors TV, while local streaming giant Zee commissioned a Tamil version of the reality show “Survivor” in the same month. In August 2021, Sun TV followed with the commissioning of four upcoming versions of the “Masterchef” cooking competition series, one for each of the Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, and Tamil languages. Discovery then followed suit with an Indian version of its original wedding-themed reality series “Say Yes to The Dress”.

“By commissioning formats that have had success elsewhere, Netflix and Amazon continue their efforts to attract new subscribers in India. But this has proved challenging for both companies in a market dominated by locally-backed subscription video-on-demand players such as ALTBalaji, Disney+ Hotstar and Eros Now. As a result, despite their continued investment in local content, Amazon and Netflix remain in sixth and eighth position, respectively, in terms of subscribers in the Indian market,”  said Zuzana Henkova, Analyst at Ampere Analysis and the author of the report.