ITV

Category: Local Cable Operators

  • Nxtdigital’s rights issue subscribed by 194 %, receives Rs 560.13 cr

    Nxtdigital’s rights issue subscribed by 194 %, receives Rs 560.13 cr

    New Delhi: Nxtdigital has announced that the company’s rights issue of equity shares of two shares for every five shares held in the company (aggregating a total of 96,20,463 shares) which closed on 29 November was subscribed 1.94 times.

    The company has reported receiving a total of Rs. 560.13 crores or 194 per cent of the Rights Issue size of Rs. 288.61 crores. This is a clear statement of confidence in the company demonstrated by the shareholders and vindicates the vision of the media group in continuing to transform to an end-to-end digital solutions platform, the company said on Wednesday.

    “The Rights Issue was another positive step taken by the company towards our stated objective of reducing our overall debt,” said Nxtdigital MD and CEO Vynsley Fernandes. “With this, the debt-to-equity ratio is expected to significantly come down to approximately 1.5 times vis-à-vis the pre-issue debt-to-equity ratio of over four times. This is, without doubt, a robust position from which to continue on our path of digital transformation”.

    The company has also been taking steps to liquidate non-core assets and pare its debt thereby.

    According to Nxtdigital’s whole-time director and CFO Amar Chintopanth, the company has already received 25 per cent of the total consideration of Rs 69.30 crores in line with its objectives of paring debt, against the sale of land at Hyderabad. “Considering that the conditions precedent for the sale have been completed within the agreed timelines the company expects the transaction to close before the end of the financial year and the entire proceeds to be realised. Such proceeds would also be utilised towards reducing of the company’s debt”.

    The integrated digital platforms company had recently launched its innovative concept of owned-and-operated NXTHUBs across the country – which besides video and broadband, promise to be future-ready to offer customers a slew of additional digital services including OTT and WiFi.

    The company is also working to operationalise the infrastructure sharing model with other Multi-System Operators (MSOs) on HITS. The model is set to help MSOs not just reduce cost and improve their quality of service, but also facilitate their expansion into markets, especially rural, where connectivity costs are a deterrent to digital proliferation, it added further.

  • Free Dish grows by 11 per cent across rural, urban households: Chrome DM

    Free Dish grows by 11 per cent across rural, urban households: Chrome DM

    Mumbai: Chrome Data Analytics & Media has announced the results for its bi-annual subscriber establishment survey (SES) and released a November report based on a Pan India ground survey conducted between April to June, 2021.

    The periodic study was conducted by Chrome DM to understand the changing landscape of the TV universe, and represents 209.3 million TV households in the country across a sample taking one out of every 175 households. The results capped off a substantial jump in Cable and Satellite (C&S) homes by 7.3 per cent, where the subscriber base has seen a jump from 167.9 to 180.1 million households.

    As per the SES November 2021 report, there has been a sizable growth in Free- Dish by a giant margin of 11.1 per cent where it maintains a northward climb in both rural and urban India. Pay DTH also saw a prominent jump by reaching a net total growth of 8.5 per cent while the same results also showed a progressive rise in digital cable by 4.1 per cent.

    The survey also illustrates the downward decline of the almost extinct analog cable by a remarkable margin of 80.9 per cent. While over 27,755 households retained the analog subscriptions back in December 2020, the number has dropped to just over 5306 households in the month of June 2021.

    Chrome DM founder and CEO Pankaj Krishna said, “OTT is here and TV continues to rule with over 200 million plus base in India.  I am glad to see an upswing in the overall cable & satellite subscriber numbers which have grown from ~167 million in December 2020 to ~180 million now.”

    SES is mainly used by broadcasters to optimise distribution revenues by way of identifying cable network footprints, outline promotions and generate media hype, audit threshold subscription numbers based on Operator’s CAS report and minimise Carriage fee spends – Chrome Distribution Investments Index.

    Chrome SES November 2021 report also offers data and analytics that provide ranging insights which go beyond the broadcast industry. These audits can be used to understand the forthcoming market trends while allowing various media planners and associated advertisers to gather deep insights into the changing fluctuations, viewer distribution and the ever-evolving mood of the subscribers.

  • Nxtdigital launches 40 new Nxthubs across India

    Nxtdigital launches 40 new Nxthubs across India

    Mumbai: Integrated digital distribution company Nxtdigital Ltd (NDL) has launched 40 Nxthubs across India and unveiled a value-added app for its last-mile owner (LMO) on Thursday.

    Following the launch of its pilot in Ranchi, these Nxthubs were electronically launched at an event in Hyderabad across 13 states including Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Karnataka, amongst others.

    Each Nxthub is owned and operated by NDL and is equipped with the latest technology comprising an ADDS or advanced digital distribution system – to distribute over 650 digital TV services received via satellite to LMOs and their customers. The Nxthub plug-and-play model eliminates the need for LMOs to invest in head-end and related technology. Besides video and broadband, these Nxthubs are future-ready to offer a slew of additional digital services including OTT and WiFi.

    According to the company, each location has been strategically chosen to augment the company’s footprint across the country, which today stands at over 4,400 pin codes, as well as focus on markets where LMO growth is constrained by the ability to invest. For LMOs, this plug-and-play solution facilitates them to go ‘digital’ literally overnight, offering their customers over 650 digital television channels and other digital services including broadband.

    NDL has planned a total of 100 such Nxthubs for this financial year that will further strengthen the NDL footprint across the country.

    “One of the key principles of the Hinduja Group is ‘partnership for growth’. After 2.0 saw the launch of headend-in-the-sky (HITS) to connect LMOs in even the most remote locations through the only satellite-based cable TV platform in India; 3.0 focuses not just on strengthening the overall ecosystem we have built, but harnessing the convergence of technologies – to be delivered through a national network of Nxthubs,” said Nxtdigital Ltd MD and CEO Vynsley Fernandes. “Video and broadband are only the start of the digital highway of services that we have developed for roll-out, backed by a robust suite of innovative apps developed by service providers, exclusively for our LMOs and subscribers.”

    Nxtdigital regional head for Andhra Pradesh and Telangana SY Srikumar said the company is proud that 16 of the 40 Nxthubs are in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana alone. “This national launch from Hyderabad reflects our commitment to LMOs here and the subscribers who expect a high quality of service. We believe this unique model will help stimulate growth and we have already lined up not just new products but also many more Nxthubs across the region,” he added.

    NDL also announced the launch of its new APIs or application programme interfaces for its Nxtdigital HITS service as well as a pre-integrated mobile app solution from ‘Mobiezy’ – under its VAAP program or ‘value-added apps for partners’. These APIs are designed to provide LMOs a way to develop or integrate their own subscriber mobile applications to automate activation/deactivation of subscriber packages directly into NDL’s systems, thereby enhancing the user experience it announced on Thursday.

    “This initiative will empower subscribers to pay online and subscribe to the channels they want to watch and get it activated on their TV sets in real-time without any delay. Without needing to undertake any software development, LMOs can approach Mobiezy for their pre-built and pre-integrated solution that uses Nxtdigital’s new APIs and can be up and running with their own mobile apps within just a few days,” said Nxtdigital group chief technology officer Ru Ediriwira.

    NDL has also been working on an infrastructure sharing model which will help other MSOs reduce operating costs, improve quality of service and extend services to hitherto unviable markets, especially rural; by riding on the HITS platform that covers all of India.

  • Trai issues new consultation paper to regulate monopoly in Cable TV services

    Trai issues new consultation paper to regulate monopoly in Cable TV services

    New Delhi: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has released a new consultation paper to regulate the market structure/ competition in Cable TV services across the country.

    The issue was initially raised by the ministry of information and broadcasting (MIB) in December 2012, when it sought the recommendation of the regulatory body. In its letter to Trai, the ministry highlighted how Cable TV distribution is virtually monopolised by a single entity in some states like Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Orissa, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, and Andhra Pradesh.

    According to MIB, it has become necessary to examine whether there is a need to bring in certain reasonable restrictions on Multi-System Operators (MSOs) and Local Cable operators (LCOs), including restricting their area of operation or restricting the subscriber base to prevent monopoly. The Cable TV Act and the Cable TV Rules also do not restrict the number of MSOs/LCOs operating in any specific area.  

    After following a due consultation process, Trai issued its recommendations on 26 November 2013. However, Trai has now received a backreference from MIB mentioning therein that a considerable time has passed since the recommendations were made and that the media and entertainment (M&E) landscape has changed drastically, particularly with the advent of new digital technologies in this sector. Technological developments especially IP technology and the increasing use of packet-switched digital communications have made converged services possible.

    Therefore, some of the issues need further consideration by the authority and it may provide a fresh set of recommendations in the matter looking at the subsequent developments/expansion in the M&E sector, stated MIB.

    The regulatory body has now invited comments from the stakeholders by 22 November. Counter comments, if any, may be submitted by 6 December.

    As of September 2021, there are 1733 registered MSOs in the country and approximately 1. 55 lakh cable operators as of March 2021.

  • NTO 2.0: MSOs asks Trai to reject new RIOs published by broadcasters

    NTO 2.0: MSOs asks Trai to reject new RIOs published by broadcasters

    Mumbai: The Tamil Nadu Digital Cable TV Operators Association has  sent a legal notice to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) asking it to reject the new reference interconnection offers (RIO) published by broadcasters. The Association has also sought Trai’s intervention in asking broadcasters to reduce channel prices as it “will cause irreparable loss to the entire industry”.

    Major broadcasters including Disney Star India, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd, Sony Pictures Networks India, and TV18 Broadcast Ltd, had published their new RIOs over the weekend starting from 15 October (Dussehra) with the new a-la-carte pay channel and bouquet pricing that adheres to Trai’s new tariff order (NTO) 2.0.

    The broadcasters had hiked the prices of their driver channels and pulled them from all their bouquets as Trai’s NTO 2.0 provisions mandated an MRP cap of Rs 12 for any pay channel to be included in a bouquet. The broadcasters are currently battling the Trai order in the Supreme Court stating that some of its provisions are arbitrary and outside the purview of the regulator. The final hearing is on 30 November.

    In its notice to Trai, the Association has stated that “major broadcasters have issued their RIOs where it can be calculated that majorly subscribed channels by the consumers will be inflated by 100 per cent to 200 per cent.”

    It added, “It is pertinent to mention here that during the situation when over-the-top service providers are trying to make their services more affordable to increase their subscriber base, the service providers of this industry will have to increase their rates substantially which will certainly cause loss of subscriber base of the local cable operators (LCOs) and multi-system operators (MSO).”

    These “excessive prices” will undoubtedly hurt the subscriber base of cable operators whose subscribers come from the rural areas of the country where income levels are comparatively lower. The MSO mentioned that any regulation/direction/order implemented by Trai should lead to the growth and development of service providers and consumers.

    “It is the contention of the Tamil Nadu Digital Cable TV Operators Association that the RIO published by Disney Star India has an illegal clause that requires MSOs to “continue the channels on the old LCNs and they cannot change it”. If new RIO is being asked to be implemented, then all its terms are liable to be renegotiated and the broadcaster cannot favourably keep the clauses of the old RIOs,” it said.

  • MCOF demands TRAI resolve pending grievances by 2 October

    MCOF demands TRAI resolve pending grievances by 2 October

    Mumbai: The Maharashtra Cable Operators’ Foundation (MCOF) has written to the chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and minister of information and broadcasting (I&B) Anurag Thakur to resolve pending grievances of local cable operators (LCOs) before 2 October.

    According to the association, the inaction of TRAI has resulted in a loss of Rs 600 crore per year for LCOs. “The LCO fraternity will take steps to protect itself no matter the consequences on the rest of the value chain,” the letter reads.

    The LCOs had sought TRAI intervention in the matter of unilateral imposition of inter-connect agreement by multi-system operators. It alleged that MSOs leveraged their portals to impose prepaid terms on LCOs while offering post-paid services to subscribers, and called for redefining the shareable revenues between broadcasters and cable operators, and asked TRAI to clear ambiguity in set-top-box ownership.

    “Our subscribers and we are wondering as to why TRAI has not taken any step to implement the NTO 2.0 after the SC verdict refusing interim relief to broadcasters’ pleadings,” said MCOF. “The broadcasters and MSOs continue to milk the disempowered customers through packaging tricks and also deny a level playing field for standalone broadcasters. On a conservative basis, the forced excess payment towards content that subscribers do not want is Rs 50 per month.”

    Model interconnection agreement (MIA) and standard interconnection agreement (SIA) are signed between MSOs and LCOs for the retransmission of TV signals. MIA ensures that there is a mutual agreement in the terms set between LCOs and MSOs in line with the regulatory framework, to avoid disputes and ensure a level playing field. SIA provides for standard terms and conditions prescribed by regulation that may be adopted by MSOs and LCOs if they fail to mutually agree on an MIA.

    During NTO 2.0 litigation, LCOs claimed that TRAI has incorrectly portrayed them as a conduit between MSOs and subscribers undermining the role they have played as last-mile owners bringing connectivity to lakhs of homes. LCOs fear that subscriber ownership may be transferred to the MSOs and will lead to broadcasters and MSOs benefitting disproportionately at the cost of LCOs.

    LCOs have adopted a prepaid billing model for cable TV subscriptions to bring transparency and plug leakage of revenues. However, LCOs claim that while MSOs impose prepaid terms on the LCOs, they continue to offer post-paid services to TV subscribers by leveraging their portals. This has impacted their revenue collection.

    “The payout of pay-TV channels to cable operators for retransmission of TV signals is much lower than the amount billed to the customer,” said MCOF. “This fact is visible at a glance at the P&L statement of MSOs who disclose Netted Content Costs,”, said the letter.

    LCOs have asked TRAI to clear ambiguity on set-top-box ownership resulting in unilateral pricing without invoicing or service level agreement (SLA) to the subscribers.

    The LCOs service 10 crore homes and employ five lakh semi-skilled personnel. The letter states that the sector is at a make-or-break point with thousands of crores invested in fibre infrastructure at risk of disuse and economical infotainment to 40 crore viewers. It said that LCOs’ long list of grievances has been brushed aside by TRAI without any justification.  

  • Cable operators take steps to ease vaccination process for staff

    KOLKATA: Despite the imminent health risks, the cable industry employees have continued to work on the frontlines all through the pandemic. Now with vaccination drives in full swing across the country, leading cable operators, too, are taking a step ahead and getting their employees inoculated. Apart from organising special vaccination drives in some cities, they are also helping employees schedule slots wherever the camps could not be set-up.

    NXTDigital organised a three-day vaccination camp at its head office in Mumbai in conjunction with Hinduja Hospital last week for its workforce in the city. The company extended this drive to also include employees’ families.

    “The philosophy has always been to hold the good health and safety of its employees as a paramount endeavour, something that we strived hard for since the pandemic began. NXTDIGITAL, therefore, set up an Employee Health & Safety (EHS) team to help our personnel and their families across the country impacted by COVID, including organising hospital treatment, access to critical medication and the like,” NXTDigital MD & CEO Vynsley Fernandes said.

    The EHS team is working with NXTDigital employees all across the country, not just supporting personnel to get vaccinated, but also providing every possible assistance to enhance their health and safety.

    GTPL Hathway also arranged vaccination drives for 45+ employees in many of its offices, with the help of state governments, GTPL Hathway cable TV head and chief strategy officer Piyush Pankaj said. However, the company could not organise such drives for 18-45+ due to shortage of vaccines. The human resources are helping employees to get the vaccinations scheduled, especially for people on the frontline. Teams are also trying to get the employees slots through government centres.

    On the other hand, Siti Networks could not organise the vaccination drive in one or two places given its pan-Indian footprint. But the MSO encouraged all employees to get vaccinated and reimbursed the vaccination cost, said Siti Networks group chief executive officer Anil Malhotra.

    Along with vaccination, the company informed that it would help employees procure PPE kits, masks whenever needed. It also imported oxygen concentrators to provide to employees if needed.

  • Make in India push for set-top boxes face challenges

    Make in India push for set-top boxes face challenges

    KOLKATA: Last year it made headlines when large DTH players including Tata Sky, Dish TV announced their decision to move manufacturing of a significant portion of set-top boxes (STBs) in India. The announcements were in line with the government’s renewed push for Make in India. But with complexities looming over the initiative, manufacturers remained worried about the impact of the initiative, if it remained limited to just ‘assembling the products in India’.

    There have been talks around different aspects of the Make in India push for STBs since the last two years. “In 2020, the department for the promotion of industry and internal trade (DPIIT) formed a committee. It asked the ministry of information and broadcasting (MIB) to be a part of it and a meeting was held with operators and STB manufacturers to gauge the overall situation,” said MyBox Technologies MD and CEO Amit Kharbanda. “STB as an electronic product falls under the purview of the ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY)Meity, but buyers are regulated by MIB, an ‘unusual situation’.”

    According to MIB, Make in India is not just about assembling the product in India but also about promoting Indian designs.

    “Our entire HITS business was premised on furthering the mission of ‘Digital India’ – taking signals to remote semi-rural and rural areas across our pan-India satellite footprint; facilitating a digital transition. As regards local sourcing, our Cable Operator Premise Equipment or COPEs bear testimony to our ‘Make In India’ approach; with a significant percentage of locally sourced components. With Set-Top Boxes, we have already moved whatever inventory production was possible, to India. This includes not just India-based manufacturers but also Indian companies. But, the challenge is that several components of the STBs still need to be procured from overseas manufacturers,” said NXTDigital MD & CEO Vynsley Fernandes.

    The draft National Broadcasting Policy (NBP) finalised early this year also focused on policies to indigenise the production of consumer premises equipment including the set-top boxes, which are heavily import-dependent. This will be done by setting up a self-reliant local manufacturing ecosystem and roping in the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and other agencies to publish the quality benchmark. The policy also called for setting up measures to rationalise the import tariffs and provide preference to domestically manufactured electronic products and mandate increasing deployment of indigenous equipment.

    GTPL Hathway cable TV head and chief strategy officer Piyush Pankaj said, “MIB has been promoting the initiative for the last two-three years, focusing on Indian manufacturers. But, the problem is many components like chipsets still come from a foreign country and are being assembled here. However, the MSO is also buying boxes from Indian vendors.”

    While domestic manufactures are trying to make way for Indian designing, it takes more than a year to develop designing. “Indian design companies have competence but the business is not in good shape, so the domestic manufacturers are requesting the operators to cooperate with them. The operators can be worried about the quality of boxes but they can opt for trial orders,” said MyBox Technologies MD and CEO Amit Kharbanda.

    On the other hand, some operators have distanced themselves from the matter.

    “We support the Make in India initiative. But, we have also clarified that it applies to any product manufactured in India by an entity here, whether it’s an Indian company or a foreign one. As a service provider, I can’t go checking on the antecedents of the company and whether it has ‘designed’ or ‘assembled’ in India, or whether there was a technology transfer or indigenous technology used. It is very complicated for us. We are buying from a company registered in India, paying Indian taxes, not importing. As long as we are doing that, we believe we are buying from India. Now it is up to the government to find out this nitty-gritty and it wants to take a policy initiative,” a senior executive with a large MSO said on conditions of anonymity.

  • GTPL KCBPL partner with UKIO, spread smiles

    GTPL KCBPL partner with UKIO, spread smiles

    KOLKATA: GTPL KCBPL has partnered with UKIO to spread smiles during these difficult times and expand their product offering. UKIO is a personalised messaging platform that allows users to share video call messages with their loved ones via their favourite celebrity icons. Customers can get customised video messages made from their favourite Tollywood celebrities for as low as Rs 299. 

    Bleak times call for more emotional support and a feeling of being cared for and celebrated by our loved ones no matter what. As people across the country are forced to adhere to contact-less mannerisms, here’s a way out to still reach out to the closest people in our lives and make them feel special. This can only be made possible with the mindful use of technology at our disposal.

    “This initiative is very important and close to the hearts of GTPL KCBPL’s family as it will cheer people up and make them forget their woes. These videos are ideal gifts to loved ones in these tough times. They have already seen a great demand for Eid wishes and Covid related courtesy messages”, GTPL KCBPL transformation manager Ankit Agarwal said.

    “This platform also allows users to get on a video call with their favourite megastars which can easily be turned into a special greeting and a memory locked in for years to come. These services will be available through our 8000 plus cable operators across the states of West Bengal and Odisha and people can create a video message to send congratulatory or occasional greetings to their friends and family. They can reach out to their local cable operator to get one of these videos. 

    Users can choose between celebrities across categories like sports, cinema, models, actors, comedy, health and fitness, TV actors, and so on. They have endless options to choose from Tollywood as well as Bollywood. Some of the biggest names in the business who have already created memorable moments include popular stars Rachna Banerjee, Ena Saha, sports megastar and Badminton Player Saina Nehwal, TV Actor, Host, and Bollywood actor Siddharth Banerjee, and Bollywood Actor and Music Composer Salim Merchant to name a few of the galaxy of stars on UKIO’s platform.

  • GTPL Hathway earmarks Rs 400 crore capex for FY22

    GTPL Hathway earmarks Rs 400 crore capex for FY22

    KOLKATA: Pan India multi-system operator (MSO) GTPL Hathway is increasing its capex projection for FY22 to Rs 400 crore, compared to Rs 335 crore it invested in FY21, a top executive revealed in an investors call.

    Out of the overall capex projected for this financial year, Rs 225 crore to Rs 230 crore will be invested in the broadband segment, while the rest is going to be deployed for the cable TV side, especially for expansion in new markets. All capex will be funded through internal accruals only. The company is not looking forward to any fund raising activity at this point of time, GTPL Hathway cable TV head and chief strategy officer Piyush Pankaj noted.

    Earlier, the MSO revealed its plans to grow its cable TV subscriber base by more than 50 per cent in the next three years. While the growth in FY21 was flat, the company has cited the  decline in commercial connections as reason for the sluggish addition. 

    “The hotels, corporates, housekeeping, offices, small offices and all, which have not come back totally because of the pandemic. We are looking forward that in the normal scenario this business will grow. The residential customers are growing. We have connected around half a million more residential houses in the pandemic. We are looking forward that we will continue to grow,” Pankaj commented.

    GTPL Hathway is excited about six new states it entered for potential organic growth. Moreover, there is a lot of opportunity for consolidation, Pankaj added. It is already on the verge of executing some deals. While pandemic came in the way to executing deals in FY21, it is looking at closing the consolidation deals as the situation improves going forward.

    Overall, the cable TV market has been growing from anything between four to seven per cent CAGR, mentioned GTPL Hathway chairman and non-executive director Rajan Gupta. It varies from state to state, where states like Odisha have grown higher.

    It is also optimistic about maintaining its broadband additions as well, which is around 60,000 quarterly. “If you see 31 March 2020, we were showing the ISP internet service at around Rs 5 crore, which has increased to Rs 43 crore in 2021, quarter-to-quarter it is down, but year-to-year it is ten times more,” GTPL Hathway promoter and MD Anirudhsinh Jadeja highlighted.

    Rather than increasing broadband ARPU, the current focus is to create the broadband market where it enjoys a high market share in cable like Gujarat. As upgradation happens from LAN to FTTH, there will be some ARPU increase, said  Gupta. The shift in ARPU with change in connection happened last year, and he expects the momentum to continue.

    GTPL Hathway planned to launch hybrid boxes in Q4FY21, but production has been delayed due to the pandemic. The boxes are ready and they are getting shipped, Pankaj stated.

    While Jio is adding broadband subscribers aggressively, Jadeja claims it is not a competitor yet. “It is good now that Jio is also our partner and we might say that we are getting the cost synergy benefits related to the content, infrastructure, or whatever Jio’s expertise is for the overall industry,”  remarked Jadeja.

    “Jio’s market is spread in Ahmedabad, Baroda, Surat, and some other cities in Gujarat. GTPL covers almost the majority of Gujarat with a presence in 100 towns. The major competitor is BSNL and there are no other players,” he added.