Indian Fire TV users doubled content consumption in 2020: Amazon

Amazon’s internet streaming device, Fire TV, saw its users in India double consumption of entertainment content during their stay at home in the pandemic-inflicted year of 2020 with movies, cricket, music, and online gaming gaining traction, Amazon said in a report on Sunday.

The highly awaited Mirzapur season 2, which released on 23 October 2020, saw more than half of its viewers finish watching the show within 48 hours of its release. IPL 2020, which was set to be cancelled for the year, took place in the UAE and racked up a 50 percent increase in viewership for Disney Hotstar. According to the report, Amazon Prime Music streaming grew more than 35 percent on Fire TV devices.

“With people spending more time at home, total hours spent by active customers on Fire TV devices more than doubled in 2020. Moreover, customers spent more than three hours per day on their Fire TV devices through 2020,” the report said, according to Hindustan Times.

Sales in metro cities continue to grow for the Fire TV, with Delhi-NCR at the top of the list followed by Hyderabad, Pune, Chennai, Kolkata, and Ahmedabad.

The American tech giant did not disclose sales numbers in India but said that monthly active users of Fire TV crossed the 50-million mark worldwide.

“In 2020, customers loved the Fire TV experience for everything from entertainment, originals, fitness, gaming, sports, and much more.”

“With Alexa, the voice quickly became the simplest way to find and watch your favorite content,” Amazon Devices India Head Parag Gupta said.

The most-watched movies from Prime Video, a streaming video service by Amazon, on Fire TV devices were Shakuntala Devi, Gulabo Sitabo, Coolie No. 1 (Bollywood), V (Telugu), Soorarai Pottru, and Ponmagal Vandhal (Tamil), the report said.

Among the fastest-growing states and Union territories for music streaming on Fire TV devices was the Andaman & Nicobar Islands, which got optical fibre connectivity in August. The other states in the list included Chhattisgarh, Manipur, and Sikkim.

“Customers loved playing their favorite games on Fire TV devices, as gaming app hours more than doubled during the lockdown. The love for gaming continued even after the lockdown with gaming hours remaining 65 percent higher than pre-lockdown,” the report said.

In 2020, Amazon recorded more than 70 percent increase in customers using the Alexa voice remote to search content, versus 2019, “with Alexa, voice quickly became the simplest way to find and watch your favourite content; with Fire TV’s universal search customers do not have to switch through multiple apps.”

“Jaipur topped the charts with most voice searches on Fire TV devices among non-metro cities. Ramayana and Mahabharata together saw close to 3,50,000 content searches during the lockdown,” the report said.

Besides entertainment content, there was also an increase in consumers’ time spent on fitness and cooking apps in 2020 by three times, the report said.

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