Dish TV, India's top direct-to-home (DTH) operator, has reported a 17.4% year-on-year increase in standalone subscription revenues to Rs 655.4 crore in October-December quarter as it added users and raised market share to 28%. The number of subscribers rose 4.16 lakh to 12.5 million in Q3 while average revenue per user (Arpu) increased by Rs 5 to Rs 177 per user over the year-ago period.
Dish TV, India's top direct-to-home (DTH) operator, has reported a 17.4% year-on-year increase in standalone subscription revenues to Rs 655.4 crore in October-December quarter as it added users and raised market share to 28%. The number of subscribers rose 4.16 lakh to 12.5 million in Q3 while average revenue per user (Arpu) increased by Rs 5 to Rs 177 per user over the year-ago period.
Subhash Chandra, chairman, Dish TV India, said the company recorded marked improvements in its key financials while maintaining market supremacy. "Overall, the DTH industry led by Dish TV recorded a healthy 29% growth on-year in gross additions," he said.
Chandra said that India helped by its monetary policy stance, a stable government at the Centre and unwinding of the commodities super-cycle is favourably placed to outrun other emerging markets."An imminent pick-up in investment and demand is expected to be favourable both for Dish TV as well as the DTH industry," he said.
While total operating revenues at Rs 713.9 crore increased 16.5% over previous fiscal, operating profit (Ebitda) rose 41% to Rs 191.2 crore as compared with Rs 135.5 crore in the corresponding quarter last fiscal. Ebitda margin expanded 270 basis points to reach 26.8% during the quarter. Net loss for the quarter reduced to Rs 2.9 crore while churn was maintained at comfortable 0.7% per month.
Jawahar Goel, managing director, Dish TV, said the company continued to strengthen reach in Phase 3 and 4 towns much ahead of the government mandated revised deadline for digitisation in those markets. "Our bouquet of offerings including fully loaded sports packs and high definition (HD) packages helped us fill the expectation gap in Phase 1 & 2 households as well. The recently launched 'Zing' has been a successful product and now caters to eight regional markets with the latest being Tamil Nadu," said Goel.
The DTH industry, Goel said, finally seems to be getting a level playing field with broadcaster's efforts towards improving declaration from the cable industry. In fact, the implementation of Reference Interconnect Offer (RIO) deals is likely to mark the beginning of a significant upward trend in industry Arpus.
"Though we have been doing everything possible to boost Arpus, the scope of results has been limited due to sticky cable prices. As multi system operators shell out more for content and increase tax compliance, cable packaging may become a reality in 2015 thus bringing Arpu to respectable levels while creating headroom for arpu expansion in DTH," said Goel.
While the DTH industry entered 2015 with the same uncertainty around taxes that has been haunting it since inception, the fraternity is hoping the upcoming budget to iron out the issues to a great extent. "The Union Budget 2014 was a dampener, however, we are keeping our fingers crossed for budget 2015. All industry stakeholders including Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), News Broadcasters Association (NBA), MSOs and DTH operators have made a joint representation to the finance ministry regarding anomalies in the industry's tax structure. The representation was received well and we look forward to hearing the outcome during the budget this year," said Goel.
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