ITV

Tag: broadband service

  • TRAI recommends MIB should not introduce any fresh regulations in Cable TV distribution sector

    TRAI recommends MIB should not introduce any fresh regulations in Cable TV distribution sector

    Mumbai: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has recommended to the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MIB) that the government should not introduce any new regulations or take any corrective measures to enhance the competition in the cable TV distribution sector.

    Trai has further requested the MIB to monitor but also intervene only at the appropriate time. However, Trai recommended, “The government may take suitable measures to facilitate & promote sharing of cable infrastructure by a local cable operator with Telecom Service Providers (TSP) to enable the last mile for provision of broadband services.”

    “The government may issue necessary amendments to existing rules/ guidelines, to enable the use of last mile infrastructure created by cable operators by TSPs for promoting broadband connections,” it wrote.

    Trai further said that the government may amend the rules under the Cable Television Networks (Regulation), Act 1995 to explicitly indicate the following:

    “Cable operators may strive to provide last mile access to Access service providers/Internet Service Providers in a fair, transparent and non-discriminatory manner for the proliferation of broadband services.”

    On 19 February 2021, MIB sent a letter to TRAI where the government informed the authority that considerable time has passed on the recommendations on “Monopoly/Market Dominance in the Cable TV services on 26 November 2013” and the media and entertainment landscape has changed drastically since then, particularly with the advent of digital technologies in this sector. Therefore, MIB has requested Trai to provide a fresh set of recommendations for the development and expansion of the M&E sector.

    For this, Trai issued a consultation paper seeking comments from stakeholders on 25 October 2021. The date of submission for comments and counter comments was extended continuously and Trai received comments on the consultation paper from 70 stakeholders and counter comments from 7 stakeholders. (recommendations are available on Trai’s website). An open house discussion (OHD) was also held on 27 January 2022 in this regard through an online mode. After considering all comments and counter-comments received from stakeholders and further analysis of the issues, the regulator has now finalised its recommendations and issued it to the MIB.

  • Q2-2014 Den Networks reports 35 per cent higher y-o-y cable revenues

    Q2-2014 Den Networks reports 35 per cent higher y-o-y cable revenues

    BENGALURU: Indian cable TV distribution company Den Networks Limited (Den Networks) continues to rake in the moolah with 32.4 per cent higher total revenue of Rs 271.88 crore for Q2-2014 as compared to the Rs 205.26 crore for Q2-2013 and almost flat (1.8 per cent higher) as compared to the Rs 268.69 crore for Q1-2014. The company reported a 35 per cent y-o-y jump in cable revenue for Q2-2014 at Rs 258.93 crore as compared to the Rs 192.51 crore in the corresponding quarter of last year (Q2-2013).

     

    Note:  
    Den Network claims that on account of a reporting policy change, w.e.f. Q2-2014, all revenue figures exclude ‘Other Income’ which is reported separately after EBITDA, and that past period figures have also been adjusted to this effect to make it comparable. Variance/s has/have been observed between the company’s investor updates of Q1-2014 and Q2-2014 and the statements filed by the company with the stock exchanges. The differences, if any between the financial analysis for Q1-2014 and Q2-2014 must be attributed to the varied accounting methodology/communications by the company. The current analysis is being done based on the updates for Q2-2014 received.

     

    The company reported a 35 per cent y-o-y jump in cable revenue for Q2-2014 at Rs 258.93 crore as compared to the Rs 192.51 crore in the corresponding quarter of last year (Q2-2013) on the back of strong growth in subscription revenues and higher placement revenues despite lower activation revenues in the current quarter.

     

    Q-o-q, the company’s investor update for Q2-2014 says that its cable business revenue was almost the same as the Rs 256.41 crore for Q1-2014, a figure that is Rs 6.44 crore (about 2.45 per cent) lower than the Rs 262.85 crore the company had reported in its Q1-2014 investor update (ref Note above).

     

    The company says that it has deployed about four lakh set top boxes (STBs) during Q2-2014 and claims a digital subscriber base of around five million in DAS phase I and II cities and about eight million analogue subscribers in DAS phase III and IV markets.

     

    Further, Den Networks believes that the next big opportunity after full digitisation of cable TV is offering high speed broadband services to its subscribers. The company announced plans to launch its broadband service offering by late Q4, FY 2013-14 (February 2014).

     

    Let us look at the other Q2-2014 figures announced by Den Networks

     

    The company has reported breakup of its cable revenue as Rs 99.11 crore as subscription revenue, Rs 119.90 crore as placement revenue and Rs 29.43 crore as digital activation revenue.

     

    Den Network’s consolidated EBITDA for Q2 -2014 was Rs 87.70 crore vs. Rs 38.73 crore in Q2-2013, a 126 per cent leap y-o-y, and eight per cent higher than the Rs 80.94 crore for Q1-2014.

     

    Correspondingly, its cable business EDITDA for Q2-2014 at Rs 85.05 crore was 134 per cent higher than the Rs 36.36 crore for Q2-2013 and seven per cent higher than the Rs 79.39 crore for Q1-2014.

     

    Consolidated PAT at Rs 11.18 crore for Q2-2014 was up by about 10 per cent higher as compared to the PAT of Rs 10.15 crore for Q1-2014. The company says that its cable business PAT stood at Rs 9.64 crore for Q2-2014.

     

    Consolidated expense at Rs 224.13 crore for Q2-2014 was 21.54 per cent higher than the Rs 184.66 crore for Q2-2013, and 2.3 per cent lower than the Rs 229.69 crore for Q1-2014. Den Network paid 18.4 per cent more towards content cost at Rs 90.54 crore for Q2-2014 as compared to the Rs 76.5 crore in Q2-2013 and the 6.5 per cent higher than the Rs 85.01 crore in Q1-2014.

     

    Depreciation and amortisation cost at Rs 37.04 crore for Q2-2013 was more than double (2.14 times) the Rs 17.29 crore for Q2-2013 and 11.47 per cent higher than the Rs 33.23 crore for Q1-2014. Den Networks has reported a foreign exchange loss of Rs 5.96 crore in its cable business for 2-2014.
    Den Networks claims that there is a significant demand for its digital cable services in its existing Phase III and IV markets. The pace of seeding is expected to pick up in the next few months. It also says that it is witnessing a lot of interest from smaller players (MSOs and LCOs) from Phases III and IV areas looking to align themselves with it and is receiving several such requests on a regular basis.

  • BSNL continues to top the list of ISPs in country with share of over 60%

    BSNL continues to top the list of ISPs in country with share of over 60%

    NEW DELHI: The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) continues to top the list of broadband service providers in the country with a market share of 60.74 per cent in the first quarter of 2013.

    The state-run BSNL has 13.12 million internet subscribers at the end of March 2013, according to the report for the first quarter by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).
    Reliance Communications is the second highest provider with 2.49 million internet users followed by MTNL with 1.96 million.

    TRAI says the total number of internet subscribers including internet access by wireless phone subscribers at the end of March 2013 was 164.81 million. This telecom statistics does not include internet accessed by mobile phones.

    There were 21.61 million internet subscribers excluding those subscribers accessing internet through wireless phone at the end of March 2013 as compared to 21.57 million at the end of December 2012, registering a quarterly growth of 0.16 per cent.

    In the internet subscription (excluding internet access through wireless phone), the share of broadband subscription is 69.65 per cent and share of narrowband subscription is 30.35 per cent at the end of March 2013.

    TRAI says the number of broadband subscribers increased from 14.98 million at the end of December 2012 to 15.05 million at the end of March 2013, registering a quarterly growth of 0.45 percent and year-on-year growth of 8.98 percent.

    The number of narrowband subscribers decreased from 6.59 million to 6.56 million.