Amazon MX Player’s no 'soft porn', no sports content gambit

India’s homegrown OTT platform, MX Player, has removed soft porn and erotic content from its platform following its acquisition by Amazon last year. Additionally, the ad-supported streaming service will now focus on providing free premium content to its users. While the platform is not currently planning to enter the live-streaming sports category, it is optimistic about increasing revenue through advertisements.

MX Player was originally developed in 2011 by a South Korean app developer as a media player for downloaded videos. In 2018, Times Internet acquired MX Player for $140 million, later relaunching it as an ad-supported video streaming app. Late last year, Amazon acquired the Indian ad-supported streaming service for $100 million, marking a lower acquisition cost than its previous buyout.

The MX Player app has been downloaded over 1.4 billion times on the Play Store and boasts 250 million monthly active users. Previously, its content library included soft porn and erotic titles such as Ratri Ke Yatri, Junoon, Bekaaboo, Dev DD, Ragini MMS Returns, Mastram, Beiimaan Love, and One Night Stand, all of which have now been removed.

The soft porn and erotic content on MX Player primarily targeted a male audience from Tier II and III cities, serving as a draw within the platform’s diverse offerings. However, brands were hesitant to advertise on the platform due to such content offerings.

When asked about the strategy behind removing soft porn content from the platform and the company's future stance on such content, Amogh Dusad, Head of Content, stated, “Amazon, as an organization and in streaming, operates with certain guardrails, and we maintain a very high standard for what we offer our customers. Advertisers are key stakeholders, and it’s important for brands to feel comfortable with the content where their messages are placed, whether through brand integrations or 30-second commercials.”

“Keeping advertiser interests in mind, you will see a lot of unscripted content being added to our slate because we believe it offers a strong viewership along with excellent opportunities for advertisers and brands to integrate. We will continue to uphold the high standards that Amazon has set for quality and the type of programming we produce,” Dusad added.

MX Player previously owned the short video entertainment app MX TakaTak. In February 2022, MX TakaTak merged with Google-backed ShareChat. Later, ShareChat shut down MX TakaTak after transitioning its users to Moj. Additionally, MX Live, an interactive streaming service that had over 5 million monthly active users and more than 2,000 live streamers in 2022, is no longer available on the platform.

Amazon MX Player will now introduce MX Fatafat, a curated short video offering for users and advertisers. Dusad explained, “Fatafat consists of curated content created from our licensed shows from international markets as well as originally produced exclusive content. We will write, approve, and oversee the creative process to ensure quality. This approach will work better for advertisers because it provides them with more confidence in the content.”

MX Fatafat is our vertical short-format scripted series, where each episode is just 2–3 minutes long. This is a new experiment that could potentially redefine how our content is consumed. We plan to launch it by April. Dusad added.

MX Player has also merged its ad-supported video-on-demand service with Amazon miniTV and announced a slate of over 100 new shows and movies set to premiere this year. However, the OTT platform is not looking to enter the sports category, which primarily caters to a mass audience in India.

When asked whether Amazon MX Player intends to offer live sports content, Karan Bedi, Head of Amazon MX Player, responded, “We have no current plans to enter the sports category. Our focus is on providing premium content free of cost to our users. Moving forward, we aim for significant growth driven by user engagement through diverse content offerings and increased advertising monetization opportunities for various brands.”

In the highly competitive OTT market, MX Player's transition into a family-friendly platform by excluding soft porn or erotic content is a strategic move. However, whether this gambit will generate sustained advertiser interest and user engagement remains to be seen. The platform's success will depend on its ability to offer compelling content, attract a broad audience, and differentiate itself from competitors.