News

Amazon Prime Video Launches 'Animax + GEM' Entertainment Pack in India

KC Global Media announced on Tuesday that it has launched the "Animax + GEM" Japanese entertainment pack on the Amazon Prime Video streaming service in India. Notable launch titles in the subscription package include:

• Fruits Basket seasons 1-3
• Haikyu!! seasons 1-4
• Yashahime: Half Demon Princess
• The Seven Deadly Sins
• How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom
• The live-action 10 count film
• The VS ARASHI reality show

Animax + GEM is available as an add-on package to Prime subscribers for an additional ₹299 a year.

Reliance's Jio TV began broadcasting the Animax Asia channel in India in January. The channel is available for linear streaming on channel 444 of the Jio TV set-top-box and mobile application. It added English subtitles to the channel in February.

KC Global Media officially acquired four Asian pay-TV channels, including Animax Asia, from Sony Pictures Entertainment in May 2020. Sony Pictures Entertainment removed Animax Asia from its Sony LIV application in the same week as the acquisition.

Variety reported in January 2021 that former Sony Pictures Television executives, Andy Kaplan and George Chien, had reached an agreement with Sony Pictures Entertainment for the acquisition of three entertainment networks that are broadcast in Southeast Asia and South Korea. The three networks include "AXN-branded channels in the region, the anime-focused Animax and South Korea's Sony One entertainment channel." The final agreement also includes the Japanese entertainment service GEM.

The Indian division of Animax Asia, Animax India, was broadcast over cable and DTH television between July 2004 and April 2017. The channel went through several changes over its time on air. Animax India started broadcasting its entire programming in English from August 2006 onward and was taken off of DTH services from 2012 onward. Sony Pictures Entertainment replaced the channel with Sony Yay in April 2017 and started streaming Animax Asia on the Sony LIV app simultaneously.

Source: Press release