dth: Subscribers are back in the DTH field, thanks to IPL
Gopal VittalMD and CEO Bharti Airtel, said the DTH business posted strong net gains in April and May. He also stated that the company’s strategy of bringing all video content together with broadband has paid big dividends for the company.
“Cricket, as you know, has an impact on DTH, and if you cut cricket viewers from the customer base, which we are doing now in a very scientific way, it will make the core business look strong or better,” Vittal. said May 17 during the company’s fourth-quarter earnings report. He said Airtel expects it to happen this quarter.
According to experts, thanks to the IPL, about 300,000 subscribers have appeared in the industry.
“The industry has been able to stem the decline in subscriber base over the past two months, primarily thanks to the IPL,” said the CEO of DTH, who requested anonymity. “Perhaps the industry has gained 300,000 subscribers in the past two months. We need to wait to see if this momentum continues.”
Tariff increase to help
Others have made changes to the strategy to stem the decline.Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. (ZEEL) Managing Director and CEO Punit Goenka announced in the company’s fourth-quarter earnings report that the decline in DTH subscription revenue has been halted.
He said the collective decision to withdraw general Hindi entertainment channels from state-owned DD Free Dish was intended to prevent paying subscribers from switching to the platform. According to him, this strategic step was taken to protect the broadcaster’s subscriber base.
“We have managed to stop the decline in pay TV revenues, especially DTH, due to FTA (free air) termination,” he said. “However, the growth that we expected has not yet arrived. We have to look at the decision in the medium and long term, not in terms of one year.”
To be sure, according to the FICCI-EY 2023 report, TV subscription revenue has been declining for the third year in a row as the pay TV universe sees a five million household decline and ARPU (average revenue per user) on the consumer side remains flat.
Rating agency Crisil recently noted that the rate hikes undertaken by DTH operators since the introduction of Telecommunications Regulatory Authority New Tariff Order of India (Tray) (NTO) 3.0 will see their revenue grow by 6-8% to Rs 19,500 crore in FY 2024, roughly 95% of pre-pandemic revenue in FY 2020.