MX Player is the latest to enter India’s video-streaming market, launches five original shows

Until recently, MX Player was just a video playback app, a very popular one at that, consistently ranking among India’s top 10 downloaded apps on Google Play Store. Last June, Times Internet acquired the Korean app for Rs 1,000 crore, and announced that MX Player would pivot into a video-streaming service and create original content in India.

Eight months on, MX Player has relaunched as an OTT platform and released five web shows under the label ‘MX Original Series’. All shows went live today. The company also revealed that it would be creating 20 more original shows across seven Indian languages (Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Bengali, Punjabi and Bhojpuri) in the next 12 months.

At present, the service is ad-supported and free to customers. Its focus is on ‘everytainment’ or entertainment for every occasion.

Karan Bedi, CEO of MX Player, said,

“Everytainment is the core of our product and combines not just all forms of entertainment but also caters to content for every season, every reason, every occasion and most importantly, every mood.”

He added,

“As more people move towards consuming content online, we want to create digital-first stories that appeal not only to the urban audiences but also much beyond. We have collaborated with some of the best talent in the industry to create our slate of MX Originals.”

Also Read: India leads the world in time spent on video-streaming apps, Netflix most downloaded paid app

MX Player has entered the original content space at a time when the domestic OTT industry is on an upsurge with the demand for quality web content at an all-time high. The service competes with global streaming giants like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, and homegrown OTT apps including Hotstar, ALTBalaji, Eros Now, Voot, etc. in a market estimated to be worth $5 billion by 2023, according to a BCG study.

But, to MX Player’s advantage, it already has an engaged user base in India. App Annie estimates that the app has over 175 million monthly users in the country, of which more than 50 million are daily active users (DAUs) - higher than most of its rivals’ DAUs.

Vineet Jain, MD of BCCL (which owns Times Internet), said,

“Indian media consumption is undergoing a complete overhaul as internet-based streaming platforms are becoming increasingly mainstream. MX Player is the first and only Indian entertainment platform combining offline video playing capabilities, online video streaming and music streaming (via Gaana) in a single app to offer the most well-rounded mobile entertainment experience.”