Dish TV India, the country's leading DTH company and part of the biggest media conglomerate Zee group, is targeting profit in the second quarter
NEW DELHI: Dish TV India, the country's leading DTH company and part of the biggest media conglomerate Zee group, is targeting profit in the second quarter of the next fiscal, a senior company executive said on Thursday.
"We are already on the road to profitability ... but the announcement would come when we reach that point. We are targeting positive earnings before interest, depreciation, taxation, and amortisation (EBIDTA) by the September quarter of 2009," Salil Kapoor, COO, Dish TV said.
He said the chances of becoming profitable have increased after the company's average revenue per user (ARPU) increased since the latest price hikes of its packages.
The company has become the first DTH player to have more than 4.5 million customers in a market of eight million subscribers, thus capturing 53 per cent of the marketshare. It is eyeing five million users by the year-end.
Dish TV India had posted a net loss for the second quarter ended 30 September at Rs 154.11 crore, while it had a net loss of Rs 91.93 crore for the same quarter a year ago.
The company, which has 225 channels at present, is planning 450 channels. To give value-added services in addition to its Active series of programmes like NewsActive, SportsActive, AstroActive and BankingActive, it is also planning to launch ShaadiActive in tie-up with Shaadi.com.
The industry is taxed at 40 per cent, which is based on subsidy at present from which at least entertainment tax and licence fee could be reduced, Kapoor said, adding, that way most of the companies could move towards profitability.
Claiming that it has a churn of less than 0.5 subscribers a month, Kapoor said the biggest challenge will be to retain customers in the face of stiff competition. The DTH industry, though nascent, has seen players like TataSky, Digital TV, Bharti Telemedia, and Sun TV.
Kapoor said the company is working out easy recharge options and will set up 1,000 neighbourhood contact points by March 2009 for a better interface with customers from the current 250.
Shares of the Dish TV India closed at Rs 13.49, down 4.46 per cent on the BSE. The market projection is 33 million DTH viewers by 2012.
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