Netflix eyes a bigger share of India’s content pie

NEW DELHI: Waging a war for content supremacy, American streaming platform Netflix is sprucing up its local content in India, one of the most crowded markets for the world’s largest paid-streaming service provider. Disclosing its content budget for the Indian market first time ever, Netflix said it plans to spend Rs 3,000 crore this year and next.

“We are only getting started here (in India) and the centerpiece of our story is content,” Netflix CEO and founder Reed Hastings said at an event here, adding, “You’ll start to see a lot of stuff hit screens in the coming months.” The streaming service, which has 160 million subscribers globally, is jostling with giants such as Walt Disney co-owned Hotstar and Amazon.com’s Prime for a bigger slice of the growing market, as more Indians use smartphones to view videos.