ITV

Category: Multi System Operators

  • Taj TV to supply signals to Grant Investrade after signing ICA

    Taj TV to supply signals to Grant Investrade after signing ICA

    NEW DELHI: Grant Investrade, which operates the headend-in-the-sky (HITS) brand NXT Digital, and Taj Television have arrived at an agreement.

     

    Taj Television will provide its signals to Grant Investrade as soon as an inter-connect agreement is signed.

     

    Stating this, the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) noted however that the agreement will be “without prejudice to Grant’s rights and contentions with regard to those clauses.”

     

    Listing the case for 13 January, TDSAT chairman Justice Aftab Alam and members Kuldip Singh and B B Srivastava made this observation after counsel Salman Khurshid on behalf of Grant Investrade said his client had some reservations on two or three clauses of the agreement.

     

    Both counsels namely Pratibha Singh on behalf of Taj and Khurshid said there was broad agreement for supply of Zee channels as also for Turner channels and this would be signed this week.

     

    Singh accepted that the agreement would be signed “without prejudice to Grant’s rights and contentions with regard to those clauses.”

  • Hathway bags ET Best Tech Brand 2015 award

    Hathway bags ET Best Tech Brand 2015 award

    MUMBAI: Hathway won the Economic Times Best Tech Brand 2015 in telecommunication, technology and media space for its significant contribution in the growth of digital cable television in the country. 

     

    The ET Edge-Best Tech Brands 2015 summit was held in Delhi on 17 December.

     

    Technology brands like HP, Capgemini, IBM, Ricoh, Mphasis and Sify amongst others were part of this summit, which recognised key contributions of organisations in building and upgrading technology to create a robust ecosystem and providing a business edge in their respective industry.

     

    Hathway Cable & Datacom managing director and CEO Jagdish Kumar G Pillai said, “We are extremely proud of this achievement and thank all stakeholders and team Hathway who have contributed towards the growth of Hathway in the digital cable television and broadband space. This recognition from one of leading and most trusted names in media, The Economic Times, is testament to the giant strides that Hathway has taken in the technological transformation of digital cable TV and wired broadband businesses in India and our continuing efforts in empowering our customers to build a better and robust service & brand.”

     

    Hathway featured in the list of top 150 technology brands of India as per the Economic Times & MRSS industry agnostic study to understand what goes into the making of leading tech Brands in the B2B space.

  • Reliance Jio to soft launch with two lakh ‘privileged’ subscribers

    Reliance Jio to soft launch with two lakh ‘privileged’ subscribers

    MUMBAI: Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio Infocomm is all set to soft launch its telecom services brand Reliance Jio on 28 December, 2015 by handing out two lakhs cards to hand-picked ‘privileged’ people as a part of the launch.

     

    It may be recalled that Indiantelevision.com was the first to report that Reliance Jio would soft launch on the eve of Dhirubhai Ambani’s birth anniversary (28 December) this year.

     

    Reliance Jio has been running test signals from a month now wherein the company’s employees have also been availing the services.

     

    A senior Reliance Jio official on condition of anonymity told Indiantelevision.com, “We will analyse the performance of our services over the next two months and a consumer base of two lakh is robust enough for that. After thorough analysis, we will do our commercial roll-out by March 2016.”

     

    The official added, “Our price package will be way lower than what is available in the market at this stage. We are entering a market where we want to have the largest number of subscribers and we will do that by providing the best services at the lowest price.”

     

    With a pan India MSO (multi-system operator) license under its belt, Reliance Jio is also in talks with both broadcasters and cable operators for their cable TV services. “By next month we will start signing deals. The technology is already in place and now we will focus on content deals. The work on cable TV front is also progressing at a good pace and by April we plan to start with 20 cities,” informed the official.

     

    Launching in a highly competitive market with multiple players, be it in the telecom or the cable space, it now remains to be seen how Reliance Jio’s pricing and service offerings are a notch above the rest.

  • Hathway re-appoints Jagdish Kumar G Pillai as MD & CEO

    Hathway re-appoints Jagdish Kumar G Pillai as MD & CEO

    MUMBAI: Hathway Cable & Datacom’s board of directors have re-appointed Jagdish Kumar G Pillai as the managing director and CEO of the company for a period of two years with effect from 21 December, 2015.

     

    Since 21 December, 2012, Pillai served as CEO, MD and executive director of Hathway Cable and Datacom Limited.

     

    With more than 27 years of experience, Pillai has worked with bluechip companies like ITC Ltd, Star TV and Reliance Industries.

     

    Prior to joining Hathway, he was part of the Reliance Jio project team as president – media & entertainment at Reliance Industries Ltd.

  • MSOs, LCOs upbeat about Hinduja’s NXT Digital HITS platform

    MSOs, LCOs upbeat about Hinduja’s NXT Digital HITS platform

    MUMBAI: The Indian television industry is bracing itself for the third phase of digitisation as the deadline for Digital Addressable System (DAS) ends on 31 December, 2015.

    Phase III deadline of digitisation is what the broadcast ecosystem has been talking for a year now. While on the one hand, the government of India has time and again made it clear that there will be no extension of deadline, which is 31 December, 2015, on the other, stakeholders are pointing fingers at the system as the teething issues like inter-connect agreement (ICA), CPS deals et al are yet to be taken care of. In a recent notice the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) headed by Arun Jaitley and MoS RajyavardhanSingh Rathore, has asked broadcasters to stop beaming analogue signals to all MSOs. Now with only days to go, people are still unclear as to what’s ahead.

    Amidst the chaos of litigations between stakeholders and various pot-shots being fired, Hinduja’s Headend In The Sky (HITS) platform NXT Digital found its calm in doing actual ground work before launch.

    Harvard Business School professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter once said, “Leaders must pick causes they won’t abandon easily, remain committed despite setbacks, and communicate their big ideas over and over again in every encounter.” And that’s exactly what the team helming NXT Digital did. Prior to its launch on 16 September, the HITS platform carried out road shows involving Last Mile Operators (LMOs) in over 19 cities spread across the length and breadth of the country to communicate the new idea.

    While the initial reactions from the operators weren’t that encouraging, the lack of collaboration on-ground between existing MSOs and LCOs turned out to be a blessing in disguise for NXT Digital, which in turn fuelled its penetration into the hinterland. Now, MSOs and LCOs that Indiantelevision.com spoke to are upbeat about the new platform.

    An independent MSO from the North Eastern Province tells Indiantelevision.com, “I recently invested Rs 50 lakh to establish a cable head-end but as of now I don’t know how much I will be charging the consumers. The Cost Per Subscriber (CPS) model is not even talked about yet. Broadcasters are giving out different deals to different MSOs. If anybody asks me for a suggestion, I would tell them to go for HITS as it is a much more transparent platform.”

    Another impeding problem that the industry will soon face is a serious crisis of Set-Top-Boxes (STBs). While the boxes are assembled in India, the components are still being shipped from China. “The components have not yet been ordered. While a few have placed the first round of orders, there are many who are yet to do that. It takes three months for the components to be delivered from China and then an additional one month to assemble them. So it is certain that the boxes will not reach on time. The STB crisis will be there for NXT Digital too,” said a senior official of an established MSO.

    However, NXT Digital is unperturbed. A senior official of the company says, “There was going to be a set-top box crisis and we always knew about it. Hence we placed an order for four million boxes and there are close to 1.1 million boxes available for us at this stage. So NXT Digital is pretty sorted from the STB point of view.”

    If sources are to be believed, Star is charging Rs 38 for its bouquet in DAS Phase III areas, whereas the Zee bouquet costs close to Rs 30. Sony Pictures Networks India (erstwhile Multi Screen Media) is pricing its bouquet at Rs 24, while India Cast is charging Rs 20.

    On the other hand, NXT Digital is charging Rs 71 per box. “It’s a good deal. It’s just that they don’t have Zee in their package yet. But I don’t think it will take long for them to get them in,” says a reputed member of a Southern cable federation. “They are giving a total of over 300 channels and if there is a spike in demand, they have the infrastructure to meet it too. So it’s a good long term investment.”

    NXT Digital follows a prepaid model, which the Indian ecosystem is not yet used to. “That’s not really a big issue; people usually get used to it. I am getting a lot of positive feedback from the industry about the HITS platform. However, there’s one thing that I will request Mr Tony to look at and that is the exchange of STBs. People are not ready to forget the STB investment that they have already made to have one. If they give an exchange offer, it would be great for us,” opines an LMO.

    Now it remains to be seen how NXT Digital proceeds further and to what extend they succeed in capitalising the hinterlands.

  • Reliance Jio touches 70 mbps download speed during trials

    Reliance Jio touches 70 mbps download speed during trials

    NEW DELHI: The download speed on Reliance Jio’s 4G network during its beta-test phase peaked at 70 megabit per second but remained in 15-30 mbps range on most occasions, as per field trial report by brokerage firm Credit Suisse.

     

    “We experienced peak download speed of 70 mbps during our trials, and on most occasions in the 15-30 Mbps range, even on the move,” said the report by Credit Suisse Research Analysts Sunil Tirumalai and Chunky Shah.

     

    At 70 mbps download speed, a Bollywood movie size video can be downloaded in about half a minute while at 15-30 mbps, the same can be downloaded in about three minutes.

     

    The report compared the commercially launched 4G service of telecom major Airtel and beta network of Reliance Jio and found “Airtel 4G giving 10-20 mbps, often slower than Jio, and 3G network speeds of sub 2 mbps (peak 7 mbps).”

     

    Analysts found urban coverage of RJio network at par with incumbents but remarked rural coverage as “poor.”

     

    During trials analysts experienced call drop-free RJio network in Mumbai but lost signal three – four times when they entered on village roads.

     

    Analysts said that they experienced seamless phone call experience between Reliance Jio and network of other telecom operators.

     

    “Overall, our take away is that the Reliance Jio network is turning out to be as strong a threat to incumbents as we had feared. Next focus would be on pricing and marketing execution,” the report said.

     

    The conglomerate is planning to do a soft launch of the 4G services on Dhirubhai Ambani’s birth anniversary this year, which falls on 28 December.

     

    Credit Suisse analysts said that the speeds will fall once a commercial launch happens and more users get on to the network but globally 4G has delivered better speed than 3G services.

     

    The company has matched up with incumbents on coverage in urban area but there is not much rural focus.

     

    “Until the rural network is fixed, RJio could enter into roaming agreements with other operators. We suspect Jio would use sub-1GHz spectrum for rural coverage,” the report said.

     

    Commenting on handset availability for Reliance Jio’s 4G service, the report said that ZTE is making Reliance Jio’s LYF branded 4G handset and some handsets of Samsung, LG, Lenovo and ZTE also supported VoLTE calls.

     

  • Taj TV to restore signals of Digi Cable Com Services, subscriber base subject to BECIL audit

    Taj TV to restore signals of Digi Cable Com Services, subscriber base subject to BECIL audit

    New Delhi: Taj Television (Taj TV) has agreed to restore its signals to Digi Cable Com Services Pvt. Ltd and its joint ventures in the DAS areas after the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal worked out a formula over the subscriber imbroglio.
     
     
    Both parties had agreed on all issues except the subcriber base, and the Tribunal said this would be subject to an audit by the Broadcast Engineering Consultants (India) Ltd.
     
    Meanwhile on the Tribunal’s suggestion, the parties agreed that with effect from 1 December, the ad hoc subscriber base will be taken as 60000. However, prior to December, the ad hoc subscriber base will be taken as 55000. 
     
    Both these subscribers bases will be subject to the audit by BECIL and will abide by the subscriber base as determined after the audit. The audit of the BECIL will be completed within six weeks.
     
    Digi Cable Com Counsel Jayant Mehta said the subscriber base was 46000 but Taj TV counsel T S Bhatia insisted that it was 70000.
     
    Members Kuldip Singh and B B Srivastava noted that the subscriber base is purely an ad hoc interim arrangement and has to finally abide by the result of the audit by BECIL. 
     
     
     
  • Sky invests in US online TV company TV4 Entertainment

    Sky invests in US online TV company TV4 Entertainment

    MUMBAI: Sky has invested $0.3 million, via convertible debt security, in LA-based TV4 Entertainment, which owns a growing portfolio of special-interest television channels aimed at audiences which are typically underserved by traditional TV companies.

     

    The channels are distributed across multiple online platforms in the US including Hulu, Amazon, Sony, Vimeo, YouTube and Roku. 

     

    TV4’s portfolio includes a dozen channels, reaching millions of unique users every month. It has more than 30 new channels in development. The current portfolio includes: DocComTV aimed at documentary devotees; All Warrior Network for fans of the warrior genre; Motorland, a video network for automotive enthusiasts; the Ultimate Champion Network which has programming for combat sports fans; and The Clarity Project, a channel exploring child illness. 

     

    TV4’s strategy has been to acquire and aggregate high-quality video content into recognisable channel brands. Through more than 200 content partners, TV4 has licensed over 5,000 feature length and short form titles as well as many TV and web series. 

     

    The investment in TV4 builds on Sky’s ongoing programme of investing in innovative startups that help Sky bring new ideas, insight and services into its business. This follows recent investments in leading online sports network Whistle Sports, Pluto TV, the online video aggregator and the US ad tech firm Sharethrough. Sky has previously invested in a number of other pioneering US technology companies, including the IP streaming service provider Roku, the immersive 360 video specialists Jaunt and the OTT video delivery firm 1 Mainstream.

     

    Sky director – corporate business development Emma Lloyd said, “This exciting investment will help us develop our understanding of niche content genres and what audiences are most passionate about. We are committed to developing partnerships right across our business that support and extend our leadership position in content and innovation. We look forward to working with the team at TV4 Entertainment as they continue to grow.”

     

    TV4 Entertainment founder and CEO Jon Cody added, “Our goal in this round of investment was to bring on strategic global investors that could unlock business opportunities as we expand internationally over the next year. Bringing Europe’s top entertainment company in Sky into the TV4 Entertainment family is the perfect fit for this mandate. We look forward to growing the value of the Company for our shareholders while bringing tomorrow’s television to viewers across the globe today.” 

  • Durgapur MSO assures Star India and TDSAT it would rectify errors in its head-end

    Durgapur MSO assures Star India and TDSAT it would rectify errors in its head-end

    New Delhi: Durgapur-based multi-system operator Akash Tori Infocom Services Pvt Ltd has assured the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal  (TDSAT) that it will rectify the errors in its system pointed out by Star India.
     
    Chairman Justice Aftab Alam and members Kuldip Singh and B B Srivastava adjourned the matter to 11 December for further hearing after hearing counsel for both sides.
     
    TDSAT had on 4 November directed the MSO to make it convenient for Star India to examine its headends in Durgapur. Accordingly, Star India had conducted a technical audit. Some shortcomings were found and this was conveyed to the MSO by Star India in a letter.
     
    Akash Tori counsel Radhika Gupta admitted that shortcomings have been found in relation to set top boxes.
     
    Star India counsel Arjun Natarajan said the audit had revealed that Akash Tori’s Subscriber Management System (SMS) is not integrated with CAS for activation/deactivation of STB, which are not possible from SMS. Furthermore, the basic addressable features in STB, like channel encryption, package activation/deactivation are not available. Natarajan also said fingerprinting and OSD or messaging is not happening in STBs.
     
    Star India asked Akash Tori to rectify the shortcomings and after rectification, it said Akash Tori may either approach Star India for a re-audit, or go for an audit by Broadcast Engineering Consultants (India) Ltd.
     
    Ms Gupta said she would seek instructions from her client in this regard and take appropriate steps. The MSO had filed a petition seeking Star’s signals in digital mode on RIO terms. 
     
    In the earlier hearing on 4 November, TDSAT was informed by Akash Tori counsel Radhika Gupta that the MSO had not yet received some set top boxes it had ordered.
     
    When the matter had first come up on 19 October, the Tribunal had noted that Akash Tori was a ‘fledgling multi-system operator’ and ‘Star India cannot have any objection to give its signals on RIO terms to it, permitting Star to examine the headend of the MSO.
  • Q2-2016: Indian Cable TV companies report improved numbers, but only just

    Q2-2016: Indian Cable TV companies report improved numbers, but only just

    Indian Cable TV is a long haul work in progress is what we had said a couple of quarters ago and mentioned this in the last quarter also. The results of the same four sample companies in the quarter ended September 30, 2015 (Q2-2016, current quarter) in those reports once again endorse this fact. Albeit, all the four companies – the big three– Hathway Cable and Datacom Limited (Hathway), Den Networks Ltd (Den Networks), Siti Cable Network Limited (Siti Cable) and the minnow – Ortel Communication Limited (Ortel) reported a quarter on quarter (QoQ) increase in Total Income from Operations (TIO) in the current quarter, Year on year (YoY ),  TIO of three of the four companies increased, while TIO of Den fell. As expected, broadband subscriber numbers and revenues continue to grow.

    Operating margins (EBIDTA) of three of the four companies grew QoQ, and of two, EBIDTA grew YoY also. Overall the combined EBIDTA of the four companies grew QoQ, but declined by more than a third on a YoY basis. However, the results reported by the four companies show a faint glimmer at the end of the tunnel. How they perform over the next few quarters will tell if the Cable TV fairy tale is going to be real, or remain just a fable. In this paper, there can be no comparison of profit after tax, because, of the four, only one has posted profit after tax quite consistently-Ortel.

    Subscription revenues of all the four companies increased both YoY and QoQ. All the four companies reported increase in digitisation percentages. Carriage Fees show a declining trend in general. The combined Carriage Fees of the four companies was flat YoY but declined QoQ.

    The minnow wants rapid growth, and grow it should, because, as mentioned above, it is the only company among the four that has posted profit after tax. One of the avenues for growth that Ortel is looking at is LCO buyout. Ortel’s President and CEO Bibhu Prasad Rath said, “We are witnessing encouraging traction to our LCO buyout strategy in emerging markets like Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, and I am confident that this would sustain going forward. Also, going forward, we would continue with our strategy of aggressive LCO buyouts across all our markets and diligently integrate the new subscribers into Ortel’s last mile network.”

    Internet subscription revenue in the current quarter increased YoY and QoQ by more than double digits. All the four companies are focusing on broadband internet services, if one were to go by the comments of their senior personnel.

    “We are looking to further streamline our Broadband operations to provide stellar customer experience. Our commitment to digitization of Phase 3 areas remains and we expect this to gain further momentum in the coming quarter,” said Siti Cable Executive Director and CEO V D Wadhwa.

    Ortel’s  Rath said, “Healthy contribution from new RGUs (revenue generating units) along with ongoing focus on the high margin broadband business would enable us to deliver strong financial performance in the forthcoming years.”

    Note: (1) 100,00,000 = 100 lakh = 10 million = 1 crore.

    (2) Some figures are approximate.

    (3) Other income has not been factored in for EBIDTA in the report.

    (4) Siti Cable and Ortel numbers for Q3-2015 are estimates.

    (5) This paper is more skewed towards the financial performance parameters in a limited way, rather than the operational and operational performance parameters of the sample companies.

    Total Income from Operations grew both YoY and QoQ

    A major contributor to all the four companies revenues are revenues from their Cable TV Operations. All the four also offer internet services, and revenue from these services add to their revenues. Companies such as Den and Ortel have other revenue streams also. Total Income from Operations or TIO in this paper, is the sum total of all operating income generated by the company including ‘Other Operating Revenue’ such as revenue earned through advertisement,  activation and service charges, etc. TIO does not include other income such as interest, revenue earned through investments, etc. Den owns a football team and that is one of the revenue streams for its TIO, while Ortel is into infrastructure leasing that contributes to its TIO.

    Please refer to Fig 1 below for TIO for six quarters starting Q1-2015 until the current quarter Q2-2016. The combined TIO of all the four companies increased 1.7 percent (increased by Rs 14.10 crore) YoY to Rs 825.32 crore as compared to Rs 811.22 crore and increased 3.3 percent (increased 26.62 crore) QoQ as compared to Rs 798.70 crore. Ortel had the highest YoY and QoQ growth in percentage terms at 24.6 percent (Rs 9.04 crore) and 12.8 percent (Rs 5.19 crore) respectively. In absolute rupee terms, Siti Cable showed the highest YoY growth with Rs 14.97 crore (6.8 percent), while Hathway had the highest QoQ growth in terms of absolute rupees at Rs 9.62 crore (3.6 percent)

    EBIDTA

    Overall, operating profit or EBIDTA of 3 of the four companies has been increasing since Q4-2015. It is only Den that has seen a decline to the red since Q3-2015.

    YoY, the combined Earnings Before Interest, Depreciation, Tax and Amortisation (EBIDTA) of the four companies in Q2-2016 reduced by a massive 38.6 percent (reduced by Rs 50.73 crore) to Rs 80.57 crore as compared to Rs 131.30 crore, but increased 4.4 percent  (increased by Rs 3.37 crore) QoQ as compared to Rs 77.19 crore.

    Both Siti Cable and Ortel saw YoY and QoQ growth in EBIDTA in Q2-2016. In the case of Den, EIBIDTA declined both YoY and QoQ in the current quarter. Hathway’s EBIDTA declined YoY, but increased QoQ. Please refer to Fig 2 below.

    Cable TV Operations

    The major contributors to revenues of the four companies Cable TV Operations are Subscription revenues and Carriage or Placement fees. Activation fees also contribute to Cable TV Operations revenue.

    It must be noted that Cable TV Operations revenue in this article and the chart below includes only these three streams. Other revenues which are not included are Advertisement revenue, sale of traded goods, lease rentals, management charges, other networking and other income, etc.

    As mentioned above, all the four companies in this article reported QoQ increase in total income from their Cable TV operations in the current quarter. YoY also, three of the four companies reported growth in revenue from their Cable TV operations.

    The combined total revenue from Cable TV Operations of the four companies was almost flat (reduced by less than 0.1 percent or Rs 0.7 crore) YoY at Rs 699.20 crore as compared to Rs 699.90 crore and increased 1.4 percent (increased by 11.1 crore) QoQ from Rs 688.10 crore.

    Please refer to Fig 3 below that shows a snapshot of revenue from Cable TV operations. In terms of revenue from Cable TV Operations, Siti Cable overtook Hathway in Q3-2015 and is now placed second among the four with Den placed at the pole position.

    The company with the highest YoY and QoQ growth in terms of absolute rupees was Siti Cable with revenue from Cable TV operations growth of Rs 11.40 crore (grew by 5.5 percent) and Rs 5.40 crore (grew by 2.5 percent) respectively. Siti Cable’s Cable TV Operations revenue in the current quarter was Rs 218.20 crore, in Q2-2015 it was Rs 206.80 crore and in the immediate trailing quarter, it was Rs 212.80 crore.

    Ortel had the highest YoY and QoQ growth in Cable TV Operations revenue in percentage terms.  Ortel’s Cable TV Operations revenue grew 12.3 percent (increased By Rs 3.40 crore) YoY and grew 8.8 percent (increased by Rs 2.5 crore) QoQ.

    Cable TV Subscription Revenue

    The combined Cable TV Subscription revenue of all the four companies in Q2-2016 increased YoY and QoQ by 0.2 percent (increased by 0.80 crore) and 2.2 percent (increased by Rs 8.10 crore) respectively. Combined Cable TV Subscription revenue in the current quarter was Rs 381.60 crore, in Q2-2015 it was Rs 380.80 crore and in the immediately trailing quarter it was Rs 373.50 crore.  Siti Cable’s Cable TV Subscription revenues have been the highest among the four players in this report.

    Last quarter (Q1-2016), despite the flat  QoQ ARPUs and higher subscription numbers, Siti Cable’s Cable TV Subscription revenue fell QoQ because  the company had initiated strict measures against erring LCO’s and had switched off signals to the extent of about 4 lakh cable TV consumers say industry sources. The action seems to have been partly successful, because the company’s QoQ Cable TV Subscription revenue increased by 7.4 percent, but did not achieve the Rs 142.40 crores of revenue levels it had in Q4-2015.

    Please refer to Fig 4A below. In absolute rupee terms, Siti Cable’s Cable TV subscription revenue growth was the highest, both YoY and QoQ at Rs 3.50 crore (increased by 2.6 percent) and Rs 9.50 crore (increased by 7.4 percent) respectively. For the current quarter, Siti Cable had Cable TV Subscription revenue of Rs 138.50 crore, in Q2-2015 Siti Cable’s Cable TV Subscription revenue was Rs 135 crore and it was Rs 129 crore in the immediate trailing quarter.

    In percentage growth terms, Ortel’s Cable TV Subscription revenue increased by 4 percent (increased by Rs 0.80 crore), while QoQ, it was Siti Cable that reported the highest growth in terms of percentage in the current quarter as compared to the immediate trailing quarter, as mentioned above.

    Please refer to Fig 4B below.  Though Cable TV Subscription revenue has been increasing in absolute rupees, its contribution to Cable TV revenues has been declining. In the case of Den and Hathway, which have more number of Cable TV subscribers, Cable TV Subscription revenue’s contribution to Cable TV revenue was around 50 percent, while in the case of Siti Cable and Ortel, Cable TV Subscription revenue contributes to around two thirds to Cable TV revenues. The author would like to remind the reader that Cable TV revenue in this report includes only Subscription, Carriage or Placement and Activation revenues only.

    Carriage Fees or Placement Revenue

    Combined Carriage Fees of the four companies saw a 5.9 percent (Rs 16.70 crore) decline QoQ to Rs 265.80 crore as compared to the Rs  282.50 crore and was flat YoY as compared to Rs 265.80 crore.

    Three of the four companies saw a YoY growth in Carriage fees, while Den Carriage Fees declined both YoY and QoQ. Siti Cable saw the sharpest QoQ decline in Carriage Fees of 17.3 percent (reduced by Rs 12.6 crore).  Hathway and Ortel saw YoY and QoQ growth in Carriage Fees. Please refer to Fig 5 below.

    Carriage Fees contribution to Cable TV revenue shows an increasing trend in the case of Hathway and Ortel, while in the case of Den and Siti Cable the trend is declining. Please refer to Fig 5B below.

    Broadband Subscription revenue

    As mentioned above, all the four companies have reported growth in Internet Subscription revenue. The combined Internet Subscription revenue of the four companies increased 62.1 percent (increased by Rs 37.1 crore) YoY to Rs 96.80 crore in the current quarter as compared to Rs 59.70 crore and increased 12.2 percent (increased by Rs 10.50 crore) QoQ as compared to Rs 86.30 crore.

    Please refer to Fig 6 below. Hathway has the highest number of internet subscribers among the four players and its Internet Subscription revenue grew the highest in terms of absolute rupees YoY by Rs 26.50 crore (increased by 58.4 percent) and  by Rs 6.8 crore (increased by 10.4 percent) QoQ. In percentage terms, Den’s Internet subscription revenue grew to almost six-fold (increased to 5.85 times, by Rs 6.80 crore) and increased 57.7 percent (increased by Rs 3 crore) QoQ.