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Tag: cable TV subscribers

  • GTPL Hathway closes FY22 as largest MSO; revenue at Rs 24,154 million

    GTPL Hathway closes FY22 as largest MSO; revenue at Rs 24,154 million

    Mumbai: GTPL Hathway witnessed revenue growth (excluding EPC) of 12 per cent year-on-year (YoY) at Rs 24,154 million. The profit after tax grew by six per cent YoY at Rs 2,006 million, according to the company’s financial results for the year FY22 shared on Friday. 

    It ended the year by adding 400K cable TV subscriptions and 181K broadband subscribers.

    The company’s digital cable TV revenue increased marginally by 0.4 per cent to Rs 10,753 million. Total paying subscribers as of 31 March stood at 7.80 million. GTPL Hathway expanded cable TV operations in five additional states in FY22. It also launched a new product ‘GTPL Genie’ which is an Android TV-based hybrid set-top-box with attractive subscription bundles.

    The company’s broadband revenue growth for FY22 was 46 per cent to reach Rs 4,075 million. Total broadband subscribers increased by 29 per cent to reach 816K out of which 360K are FTTX subscribers. In FY212, the company added 830K home-pass. Home-pass as of 31 March stood at 4.70 million.

    GTPL Hathway Limited reported fourth-quarter revenues of Rs 6,209 million and profit after tax of Rs 552 million. Broadband revenue stood at Rs 1,098 million and digital cable TV revenue at Rs 2,695 million. The average revenue per user (ARPU) for Q4 FY22 stood at Rs 450.

    “We are proud to announce another year of consistent performance across all business segments,” said GTPL Hathway managing director Anirudhsinh Jadeja. “GTPL is now the largest MSO in the country, continues to be the largest MSO and broadband player in Gujarat, and has a significant presence in all other markets.”

    “We continued to deliver on our KPIs and grew by expanding in new geographies as well as penetrating deeper into existing markets. The key highlights of FY22 are stable subscription revenues, profitability and return ratios with a healthy balance sheet. The Company’s Board has recommended a dividend of Rs four per share for FY22,” he added.

    “The launch of GTPL Genie is a path-breaking initiative bringing subscriptions of bundled Live TV and OTT applications at competitive prices to our consumers. We are committed to delivering value to all our stakeholders with adept and prudent financial practices,” Jadeja further stated.

  • DTH expands even as pay TV market saturates

    DTH expands even as pay TV market saturates

    Mumbai: Pay TV subscription revenue is expected to reach $7.6 billion by 2026 over $6.4 billion in 2021, stated Media Partners Asia in its latest report on India’s online video market, which also highlights the increasing market share of Direct-to-home (DTH) even as cable TV remains in structural decline.

    There are 127 million pay TV subscribers in India and DTH has been winning share from cable TV since 2019. While DTH grew its subscriber share from 42 per cent in 2019 to 47 per cent in 2021, the share of cable TV declined from 56 per cent to 52 per cent in the same period.

    According to the report, there will be one billion video screens in India by the end of 2024. There will be 47 million FTA households and 121 million pay TV homes. As many as 13 million homes will have hybrid set-top-boxes, 744 million users will have 4G connections and 155 million users will have 5G connections. In the long run pay TV homes will decline while FTA homes will continue to grow, the report indicated.

    By 2026, two-third of Indians will have access to high-speed mobile broadband reaching 899 million subscribers, out of which 34 million homes will be serviced by fibre, and three million homes will have wireline (digital subscriber line) connections. The report estimates that ~90 per cent of fixed broadband homes will be serviced through fibre.

    In terms of revenues, the video market scale will grow to reach $18 billion in 2026 over $11.6 billion in 2021. Pay TV subscription revenues may reach 7.6 billion, pay TV advertising revenues at $6.1 billion, OTT advertising-video-on-demand (AVOD) to reach $2.8 billion and OTT subscription-video-on-demand to reach $1.8 billion.

    D2C SVOD subscribers to reach 193 million by 2026

    Despite content supply bottlenecks, India’s OTT SVOD subscriptions continue to grow at a robust rate. This year OTT subscribers are expected to grow by 1.6 times over the previous year to reach 88.7 million. Most of these subscribers are expected to come through Disney+ Hotstar in Q4. As per the MPA’s estimate, Disney+ Hotstar subscribers is likely to reach 46 million, Prime Video to reach 21.8 million and Netflix to reach 5.5 million at the end of the year. These platforms will continue to account for 83 per cent of total direct-to-consumer subscribers in India.

    The OTT industry is also expected to invest $1 billion in content in 2021, according to the report. Their share of acquired and local content is 30 per cent and is expected to grow to 40-45 per cent in the near future. New D2C SVOD entrants are going to enter the market by 2022 including services from HBO and Comcast.

    The content strategy of the leading OTT players is diverse and has led to subscriber growth. For Disney+ Hotstar, the combination of sports and local originals has been increasing subscriber growth. It hiked its base plan by 25 per cent “which is justified given the value of its upcoming slate of premium sport and local original content”, said the company.

    Disney+ Hotstar, which is currently at the lower end of ARPUs (<$2), will see its pricing power improve after 2022, according to the report. Prime Video has benefitted from its regional content push and Netflix has invested heavily in original content with 41 original releases in 2021.  

    In 2022, the Indian Premier League (IPL) media rights will be up for grabs once again with TV and digital rights being sold separately. The report estimates that top bidders will include Disney, Amazon, Facebook, Jio and Sony.