India, May 15 -- Shemaroo Entertainment acquired the entire content library of video streaming platform OHO Gujarati in April, largely for its own streaming service ShemarooMe. But Saurabh Srivastava, chief operating officer of Shemaroo Entertainment's digital business, doesn't like to call it consolidation. "OHO Gujarati has been inactive for a couple of years and its strong library of web originals in Gujarati was a perfect fit for us to augment our catalogue and audiences, especially youth," he said. Srivastava, however, believes that India's over-the-top (OTT) video streaming sector, buzzing with more than 40 homegrown and international apps, is maturing. Demand for micro drama and content in regional language is rising, leading to existing players consolidating their businesses for customer retention and better monetization in their pursuit of profitability. Last week, streaming service Prime Video and its free OTT service Amazon MX Player announced their integration to create a single streaming destination. With this unification, Prime members will access a wide selection of originals and exclusives across devices with a choice to watch with ads or go ad-free. For customers seeking free, high-quality entertainment, the service will offer a wider selection of content with ads and an offer to seamlessly subscribe to Prime. Amazon had acquired certain assets of Times Internet's MX Player in 2024 and merged it with its own free service Amazon miniTV to create Amazon MX Player. With everything subsumed into the Prime Video app, the company will operate one brand offering Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD), Advertising Video on Demand (AVOD), Transactional Video on Demand (TVOD), all in one place, including Prime's premium global and local programming and Amazon MX Player's reality shows and micro dramas. "The integration of Prime Video and MX Player is a strategic move on multiple fronts. It gives Prime Video immediate access to hundreds of millions of consumers, significantly expanding its reach overnight. For advertisers, the combined platform creates a far more unified and scalable proposition, compared to the current fragmented approach of buying inventory across two separate services," said Mihir Shah, vice president, Media Partners Asia. In February 2025, Reliance Industries' JioCinema and Star India's Disney+Hotstar similarly merged to launched JioHotstar, as part of a larger deal. An entertainment industry executive said Prime Video may have taken a leaf from JioHotstar's book given the synergies and scale the combined app has achieved. Integration helps the company keep a customer within the app. "For instance, if a customer completes a feature film on Prime and still has a few free minutes, he may log out of the app to, say, watch micro drama. Once he logs out, he can go to any micro drama app and not necessarily Amazon MX Player. This integration minimizes the risk of losing a customer as a single app gives him a premium film and vertical drama," the executive said. Unifying the apps leads to other cost efficiencies. In India's highly competitive streaming market, the cost of acquiring a customer is very high. For two apps you are spending on performance marketing and brand campaigns separately. "Also, since the average revenue per user in India is very low, the lifetime value of a customer matters a lot. With enhanced content in a single app, the probability of him sticking to the app and giving a higher lifetime value increases," Shemaroo's Srivastav said. Besides manpower, one-stop entertainment hub saves on technology costs since the apps are constantly looking to improve the user experience, making it more intuitive and responsive, Srivastava said. "A unified product unlocks significant cost synergies through a consolidated sales function, common technology stack, and shared operations, all of which should materially improve unit economics going forward," said MPA's Mihir Shah. The entertainment sector executive said the strain on platforms may be easing as they push back on content costs and explore revenue streams other than advertising and subscription. JioHotstar, for instance, is experimenting with contextual commerce. For the ongoing cricket season, it has partnered with Swiggy for an in-app food ordering experience for mobile users. A viewer can order food within the streaming environment. OTT platforms are accelerating experimentation with AI-led personalization, content commerce, shoppable ads and are redefining engagement, retention and monetization, said a March 2026 Ficci-EY report. Video subscriptions are expected to reach 191 million homes and 255 million paid subscriptions by 2028, it said....