Tag: DD Freedish

Dish TV shoots off letter to IBF; alleges discrimination by b’casters, OTT platforms

NEW DELHI: In a move that’s certain to set the cat amongst the pigeons, Dish TV, one of India’s biggest satellite platform in terms of subscribers, has not only accused broadcasters of “discrimination” relating to making available content to various pay distribution platforms vis-à-vis likes of OTT, but also “creating huge disparity” in the market.

“Broadcasters, on one hand, keep on charging huge subscription fee from us and, on the other hand, provide the same content/channel to the OTT platforms at highly subsidized rates, thereby not only creating a non-level field, but also causing huge detriment to the subscribers of Dish TV. Availability of same content/channel on alternate distribution platform on much cheaper rate vis-a-vis DTH has started resulting into migration to the alternate distribution platforms,” Dish TV has said in a letter to the Indian Broadcasting Foundation, an apex body of TV channels or broadcasting companies operating in India.

The Dish TV letter dated 11 August 2017, reviewed by Indiantelevision.com, goes on to highlight why the move of TV channels to turn FTA, join Doordarshan’s free-to-air DTH platform DD FreeDish after paying a carriage fee, and making available content at highly subsided rates to OTT platforms like YouTube and that being proposed by Reliance Jio slides the Indian television market’s business model to be largely advertising driven.

“It is a common industry knowledge that the broadcasters have provided their channels to the OTT platforms at a highly discounted rates, which is totally prejudicial and discriminatory to the DTH platforms,” the Dish TV letter stated, which has also been sent to the DTH Association of India and the All India Digital Cable Federation, a body of digitally-able MSOs.

The letter from Dish TV, written by the satellite platform’s managing director Jawahar Goel, is addressed to IBF president Punit Goenka, who also is Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited MD and CEO, and a nephew of Goel. Goenka’s father and media baron Subhash Chandra is a member of India’s Upper House or Rajya Sabha.

According to people familiar with the development, IBF’s member-companies have been asked to give their feedback on the content of the letter, which could be put to vote some time mid-September.

“The IBF constitutes of seven major members, viz. Star, Zee, Sony, IndiaCast, Sun (TV group), Discovery and Times, which not only control the IBF but also are the major players collecting the subscription and advertisement revenue— collecting more than 99 per cent of the subscription and advertisement revenue of the Indian broadcasting industry,” the letter stated, adding that actions of the broadcasters “clearly indicate” the focus was shifting towards increasing the advertising revenue against subscription revenue.

Raising the issue of sector regulator TRAI and disputes tribunal TDSAT’s emphasis on “fairness, reasonability and non-discrimination” as far as making available content to distribution platforms, Dish TV pointed out that strategies employed by broadcasters were “deterrent to the pay TV market.”

Pointing out that certain actions of the broadcasters could amount to breach of cross-media restrictions too, the letter exhorted the IBF members to discuss “whether the emphasis has to be on pay model (where the broadcasters can collect subscription) or an FTA model (where the broadcasters can get the advertisement revenue)”.

Till the time of writing this report, Indiantelevision.com could not get across to IBF for a reaction.

“Availability of same content/channel on alternate distribution platform on much cheaper rate vis-a-vis DTH rate has started resulting in(to) migration to the alternate distribution platforms,” the letter highlighted, adding that big broadcasters’ own OTT platforms (like Star’s Hotstar, Viacom18’s Voot, Sony Pictures Entertainment’s SonyLIV and Zee’s dittoTV, for example) also contributed to compounding the problem.

The letter added: “It will be critical for your (IBF) members to spell out the strategy to hold/grow the pay TV market, which has been contributing to around 35-40 per cent of the total revenue of the pay broadcasters.”

However, it seems that the present slew of letters from Dish TV and accusations will again rock the approximately Rs 558 billion Indian media and entertainment industry, which had thought corporate skirmishes of mid 1990s to mid 2000s had been buried in favour of overall growth of the broadcast and cable sectors and the media and entertainment industry, in general.

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August 25, 2017
Star Bharat to be available on DD FreeDish as b’caster’s fourth FTA offering

MUMBAI: Going FTA seems to be the flavor of the season. Star India’s Hindi general entertainment channel Life OK, which will be soon rebranded as Star Bharat, is now slated to be available on DD FreeDish.

Recently, one of India’s largest broadcasting company Star India had won additional slots on pubcaster’s FTA KU-band service (DD FreeDish) by bidding shades over Rs. 160 million. At present, the three Star channels on the platform are Star Utsav, Star Utsav Movies and Star Sports First.

Prasar Bharati sources admitted to indiantelevision.com that Star India has additional slots on DD FreeDish, but could not give an immediate time frame for any new channel to be made part of the FTA platform. Reason: DD FreeDish is being upgraded with a new technology (MPEG-4) that will help it enhance overall viewer experience as also get more TV channels on board after signal compression.

“We cannot guarantee if the technological upgradation will be complete by the end of this month so as to accommodate more TV channels,” a source in Prasar Bharati said, explaining that the arrival of Star Bharat or any other TV channel on FreeDish could get delayed beyond August.

Meanwhile, according to industry sources, shows such as ‘May I come in Madam’, ‘Sher-E-Punjab Ranjeet Singh’ and ‘Chandrakanta’ will go off air and shows like ‘Savdhaan India’ and ‘Ghulam’ will continue on Star Bharat. Shows like ‘Kya Haal Mr Paanchaal’, produced by Optimystix, are among the new launches. Life OK earlier carried another named and was originally launched in 2011.

‘Aayushman Bhava’, produced by White Horse Telefilms (a murder mystery) and Zama Habib’s ‘Nimki Mukhiyaan’, which was supposed to have aired on Star Plus, has now been shifted to soon-to-be launched Star Bharat. It’s a story about a girl who becomes a village chief and changes her entire village.

Star Bharat is also exploring launching a bhajan reality show ‘Om Shanti Om’, produced by Colosceum Media, which will be likely judged by rock star yoga guru-turned-entrepreneur Baba Ramdev, along with Sonakshi Sinha, Kanika Kapoor and Shekhar Ravjiani.

On 17 August 2017, Star Bharat launched its first TVC, #Bhuladedarr. The TVC gives a new definition to ‘overpowering inhibitions’.
BARC data has shown in the past that private sector FTA channels on DD FreeDish, like Zee Anmol and Star Utsav, garner good audience and help in upping the ratings of such TV channels.

Doordarshan’s FreeDish is a multi-channel FTA DTH service, which was launched in December 2004 with a modest collection of 33 TV channels. Regular upgrades has enhanced capacity and presently platform has the capacity of 80 SD TV channels along with 32 radio channels. The service is a available in KU-band on GSAT-15.

(With additional inputs from BB Nagpal in New Delhi)

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Life OK rebranded as Star Bharat may start from 15 Aug

FreeDish: English news channel among two come aboard (Updated)

August 17, 2017
Local language content a major challenge, says Prasar CEO Vempati

NEW DELHI: Prasar Bharati chief executive officer Shashi Shekhar Vempati has stressed that India was very rich in content and with so many platforms it is important to capitalise on this.

Vempati said: “While native technology and artificial intelligence effectively guarantees impact, it is imperative to supplement it with creative minds, which exist in India and gives it an edge over the others. India possess a demographic uniqueness which places us ahead on the global map. What is lacking is an ecosystem to incentivise creators and insulate consumer experience.”

Thus the situation is right for good and meaningful content. But, unfortunately, he felt that more funds were being put into automation and distribution than on content.

Addressing the Create4India meet organised by Digital India Foundation, he said India had a major advantage in not only being the youngest but the largest democracy, and had an advantage over China as it had freedom of speech. The country was also a rich source of content with its ancient heritage.

Referring to Doordarshan, he said even BARC had shown that DD had a larger reach than any other channel, particularly taking rural viewers into account.

Describing Its DTH platform FreeDish as a “democratic tool”, he said it reached the far corners of the country. But, he said the time had come when DD makes programmes not just for India, but the world. He stressed the need for more content in local languages to reach out to the people.

Vempati also referred to outsourcing and in this context he said the new DD logo contest had brought back many new viewers to DD. But, marketing was as important and FreeDish was doing that for DD.

With convergence coming in, the emphasis on variety in content had become even more relevant.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India chairman R S Sharma brought the regulators perspective, sharing his belief in a transparent mechanism of open consultation with the industry and the stakeholders, with accountability to the people at large.

He said the basic layer of connectivity is ‘robust’ but the layer of software has to be built. He complimented the start-ups which were producing rich content.

Foundation founder Arvind Gupta said though there were around 400 million viewers in the country, 86 per cent were watching content which was not in their local language.

He said the country had a net addition of 25 million smartphones per year and that emphasized the need for more content. There are around 30 GB of downloads per month.

Content creation was a very small portion of the $100 billion industry, he regretted. Gupta said, “The current digital disruption and technological change has redefined the limits of human ingenuity and innovation, a phenomenon accelerated with ‘convergence’ in technologies and modes of content delivery. This convergence necessitates an ecosystem approach towards the creative economy’s growth and future regulation.”

Bringing perspective to the content consumption trends in India, he reiterated the need for creating new content that is, affordable, understandable and socially relevant for the India market.

The panel discussions featuring industry stalwarts as Arun Thapar (EVP & Head of Content, AETN18 Media) and Vijay Nair (CEO, Only Much Louder) focussed on building a qualitative content driven framework, backed by digital disruption. Creating significant digital presence in today’s era is not a luxury of choice, but a ‘must have’, to unleash the creative potential. Addressing the key ingredients of a robust creative economy, the panel necessitated the need for ‘humanising’ content, to make consumption more compelling and generation defining.

The second panel, led by Pushpendra Rai (former director World Intellectual Property Organization), felt progressive policies backed by the right legislative intent is quintessential to contribute to the success of this sector, not just to foster creativity, but to help in sustenance and growth of the creative economy.

Author and entrepreneur Barkha Dutt brought forth the content creator’s perspective stating that advertising dependence in media will always play to the lowest common denominator – the masses. What needs to be addressed is, how India’s creative class will emerge with a revenue model and an audience willing to pay for content.

She wondered why Indians did not want to pay for news which enabled creative disruption without monetisation. She said she was open to the tyranny of the market if she was given a level-playing field. She also wondered why Indians were shy of personalising and marketing individual brands.

In 2016, the National IPR Policy brought the administration of copyright under the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) and highlighted the intrinsic linkages between commercialization, consumer choice and creativity. The relative contribution of India’s creative economy to the GDP (0.9%), is less than most emerging market counterparts, she said.

August 10, 2017
Rs 200 mn allocated for free DTH in border areas

NEW DELHI: An allocation of Rs 200 million has been made for setting up direct-to-home receiver sets of Doordarshan’s FreeDish in tribal, remote and border areas, the Parliament has been told.

Minister of state for information and broadcasting Rajyavardhan Rathre said 30,000 DTH receiver sets would be distributed in consultation with state governments. He said that DTH receiver sets had been distributed in the past by Doordarshan in selected areas.

The question in the Parliament related to distributing free DTH connections in Naxal-hit areas.

An earlier separate report stated that Prasar Bharati may be distributing for free around a million direct- to-home (DTH) set-top boxes in Naxal-hit areas of India.

Besides a dedicated DD channel for Chhattisgarh, then union minister of information and broadcasting M Venkaiah Naidu had stated that a high-power transmitter would be commissioned in Jagdalpur (Bastar district headquarter) which would beam signal of AIR Jagdalpur to a radius of 200 km.

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Prasar to distribute 1 mn free STBs, Chhattisgarh channel plan reiterated

32 free DTH educational channels on Dish TV & FreeDish start functioning

August 4, 2017
FreeDish auction on 22 Aug, different reserve prices for GEC & news

NEW DELHI: Doordarshan’s FreeDish is all set to hold its second e-auction with differential reserve prices for general entertainment channels and news channels.

The 37th e-auction is slated for 22 August and the reserve prices for general entertainment channels will be Rs 80 million but the reserve price for news and current affairs channels will be Rs 65 million.

With the completion of MPEG4 trials, the total strength of the platform will go up to 104, over the next few months. Earlier this year, Parliament was informed FreeDish had got approval to increase this capacity to 250 channels and DD sources had told indiantelevision.co that will happen ion the third quarter of 2018.

The e-Auction will be conducted by M/s. C1 India Pvt. Ltd., Noida which also conducted the FM Radio Phase III auctions on behalf of Prasar Bharati.

The participation amount (EMD) in the e-Auction for GEC channels is Rs.28 million while it is Rs 22.8 million for news channels. This has to be deposited in advance before or by 12 noon on the date of auction along with processing fee of Rs.25,000 (non-refundable).

Incremental amount for the auction will be Rs one million and the time for every slot e-auction will be of fifteen minutes duration. This may be extended by five minutes if a bid is received before the closing time.

Unsuccessful bidders will get back the participation amount within three weeks of the results while that of successful bidders will be adjusted against the third and final instalment of the carriage fee.

If the successful bidder fails to put his channel on the allotted slot within a month, the allotment will be cancelled and the participation fee forfeited. Successful bidders have to sign and return an agreement within fifteen days of allotment.

The first installment of 25 per cent of the bid price with the applicable service tax will have to be paid within one month from date of placement of channel.

The second installment of 25 per cent of the total bid price along with the applicable service tax will have to be paid within four months of placement of channel.

The third installment of remaining amount after adjusting the participation fee and previous installments but adding the applicable service tax will be deposited within seven months of placement of channel.

If any of the installments is not paid in time, a penal interest of 14.5 per cent per annum will be levied.

If there is failure in depositing an installment for two months, the deposited participation amount along with any installment paid will be forfeited and the channel discontinued after a 21-day discontinuation notice.

In line with the ‘Digital India’ and ‘Make in India’, DD has implemented Indian CAS (iCAS) on DD FreeDish Platform. iCAS (which is an initiative of the central government).

DD officials said the existing viewers will continue to get 80 SDTV channels and 32 radio channels, but will have to obtain iCAS-enabled authorized set-top boxes for accessing all new channels.

Although Free Dish will remain free-to-air with no monthly or periodic fee, the viewers will be required to register with DD FreeDish on getting the new STB from Doordarshan authorized STB dealers.

DD officials said implementation of iCAS and authorisation of STB original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) by Doordarshan will give a major thrust to ‘Make in India’ and ‘Digital India’. At present, a majority of STBs are imported. However, the introduction of iCAS will help in standardization of STBs and encourage quality STB manufacturing in India.

With analogue having been switched off, Parliament had been told that many stakeholders feel that FreeDish is the best option in Phase IV which covers rural India.

FreeDish was launched with a modest bouquet of 33 channels in December 2004, and now carries eighty TV channels and 32 radio channels. This includes 22 Doordarshan channels and two parliamentary channels, seven general entertainment channels, 18 movie channels, 13 news channels, seven music channels, three religious channels and eight channels of other genres. The All-India Radio stations also piggy-back on the platform.

Also read:

MIB favours switching to DTH if consumers have problems with MSOs or LCOs

FreeDish: English news channel among two come aboard (Updated)

FreeDish creates record, sells 11 slots for Rs 851 million

August 1, 2017
FreeDish a key driver in FTA channels’ growth by ’20

BENGALURU: Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) numbers for the six private players in the DTH industry show a very poor growth rate of just 0.96 million and 5.8 million during the quarter and year ended 31 March 2017 (Q4-17, FY-17) respectively. This figure is far lower – less than one-third of the 17.38 million active DTH subscribers added in FY-16. According to an E&Y report titled ‘India’s Free TV’ released in July 2017, among the DTH operators in the country, DD FreeDish has grown to become the largest with estimated 22 million subscribers. This would make it the single largest distribution platform in India today. While there is no concrete data around it, because any customer can buy from a variety of hardware options and commence downlinking the FreeDish feed, DD FreeDish subscribers are expected to cross 40 million in the next 2 to 3 years.

The report says that this growth in subscriber base has caught the attention of both broadcasters and advertisers today. All large broadcasters, including Star, Zee, Sony and Viacom, have launched their FreeDish-based channels. The content on these channels is similar to that on the broadcasters’ general entertainment pay channels but is dated by up to a year or even less. Success of channels such as Zee Anmol (with ad revenue of approximately Rs 800 million) and Sony Pal (with ad revenue of approximately Rs 1,100 million) has led to even further channel launches by broadcasters, which have now launched FTA film channels on FreeDish as well.

Hindi news television, a segment always skewed toward FTA channels, has taken to DD FreeDish in a big way in order to protect its ad revenues and save on the carriage fees charged by distribution companies. Almost all large Hindi news channels are now on the DD FreeDish platform says the report.

The report says that several factors are working together in the current environment in 2017, which E&Y believes will lead to a significant growth in free TV viewership over the coming years. These factors include:

1. Digitisation of cable TV distribution – DAS IV Given the regulatory push toward digitization, the government of India has mandated the total shutdown of analogue cable transmissions from April 2017. In effect, this will require consumers, particularly those in DAS III and IV markets, to make a choice – opt for more expensive cable TV options, DTH or free TV options such as terrestrial TV or FreeDish. Given that they would have to invest in hardware (a STB and perhaps also a dish), the more price-conscious customers may opt for free television services in the immediate term.

2. The proposed new tariff order -With the base price set by the new tariff order at a maximum of Rs130 plus tax for carriage of 100 channels, customers paying Rs150 per month or below will now end up losing access to all pay channels they were receiving. In such an event, they would have the option to either pay more to receive pay channels of their choice or decide that free television would be a better option, given the quantum of quality content on it. Broadcasters’ FTA channel strategy may impact their subscription revenues in the event the move toward free television becomes significant.

3. The fast growth of DD FreeDish – FreeDish currently provides over 80 channels and is moving toward 250 channels, many of whom have the same or similar content than pay channels. In addition, recent regulations classifying even more sports events as those of national importance (hence requiring them to be shared with DD) make the FreeDish bouquet formidable competition to pay bouquets.

4. DTT on mobile infrastructure- One interesting development relating to mobile television is the advent of digital terrestrial distribution. Since this is a broadcast technology, the key implication will be that consumers whose mobile handsets have the required antenna would not be required to pay any bandwidth charges. Consequently, once the mobile handset ecosystem matures, DTT could also provide a strong addition to free television services.

July 7, 2017
Star to focus on school-level games via FTA sports channel

NEW DELHI: A sports war may just be brewing between India’s pubcaster Prasar Bharati and private sector TV channels. Close on the heels of Doordarshan announcing its intentions to start sports leagues involving indigenous sports for viewers of FTA channels, Star India said it would launch a FTA sports channel Star Sports First showcasing non-cricket games with emphasis on school-level sports.

What’s more, though Star’s FTA Star Sports First could be made available to all distribution platforms, it would debut on DD FreeDish, a satellite-based TV platform comprising mostly FTA channels belonging to the pubcaster and those from private sector media companies.

“Our FTA channel’s aim would be to highlight indigenous sports like kabaddi and also games like hockey with extra emphasis on school-level sports,” Star India MD Sanjay Gupta said, adding sports is an under-exploited sector in India and advertisers have shown interest in such a FTA offering.

According to a recent Ernst & Young (now, E&Y) report on India’s FTA TV market, only one percent of viewership of sports channels came from the FTA market, while the pay TV market cornered the lion’s share of viewership and, also, probably, advertising. According to media experts, the FTA ad market too is likely to go north clocking approximately Rs 10 billion in 2017.

The move by Star India comes close on the heels of DD director-general Supriya Sahu telling media that the pubcaster is working on a blueprint to launch indigenous sports leagues on a FTA channel to largely cater to those TV viewers who access FTA channels on DD FreeDish, apart from making further inroads into the regional markets with more offerings.

Meanwhile, Star’s Gupta while earlier on Thursday delivering a keynote address at CII-organised sports conference `Scorecard’ here said despite the strides India has made in the business of sports, it’s still an under-exploited market.

“Despite this glitz and glamour of viewership and money, the reality remains that sports as an industry is just at a $2.5 billion size today (in India). Whereas, in a country, like, the US, this sector is over $80bn. We have all been celebrating the (sports) leagues that have come up, but again US has more than 30,000 league games happening in a year and we aren’t even at a 1/50th of that number,” he highlighted.

Highlighting the reasons for slow growth of sports and businesses related to it in India, which was also a reflection on the country’s outlook towards sporting culture in general, Gupta said in a recent survey done across the country it was found Indian kids on an average play 20 to 30 minutes in a week, which is much low to their counterparts in developed markets like the US and Europe. Compared to Indian kids, children of the same age in the US and Europe played roughly “an hour a day”.

Pointing out that there was an urgent need to “challenge the current mindsets of parents, schools and businesses” regarding sports in general, Gupta said, “There is an initiative being run by the sports committee of CII where they are working with a group of 1,000 schools to redefine the perception of parents and school administration toward sports. But we can’t expect such initiatives alone to move mountains. Such a mammoth shift in mindset and behavior requires a movement.”

Gupta’s vision is to unleash the power of sports, with the help of the government and corporate sector, to “inspire, to unite, to teach things the way nothing else possibly can” and for which the country needed to “get 300 million kids to play for at least an hour every day.”

Tough task? Well, India too has some shining rags-to-glories sporting icons in games like cricket, badminton, squash, snooker, hockey, football and, lately, basketball too.

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July 7, 2017
Doordarshan D-G Supriya Sahu says studying tie-ups & models as kids channel launch nearing

NEW DELHI: Doordarshan is actively working on an exclusive channel for entertainment for the young ones, and is currently preparing a detailed note in this connection.

Doordarshan director-general Supriya Sahu said the pubcaster had earlier in the year sent a concept note to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry which had now asked it to work out details.

Consequently, Sahu told indiantelevision.com that the pubcaster was presently studying possible partnerships and various models, apart from studying the availability of content. She said that she was confident that this would “materialise soon”.

Sahu also pointed out that the direct-to-home platform of Doordarshan, FreeDish, had all kinds of programming but nothing for the kids. It was therefore considered important to launch such a channel.

In fact, she said the issue had also been discussed at FICCI Frames in March this year. It was pointed out that kids’ channels in India were roughly about three per cent of the total number of channels with limited Indian content. Programming for children for television is a responsible job; sensible children’s programming has the objective of making youngsters imbibe a sense of responsibility and morality.

To strengthen the kids’ content industry and bring about sustainability, stability and growth to the artist community and other stakeholders in the industry, there was consensus that India needs a Free-to-Air Terrestrial Kids Channel. There was general agreement that, since Doordarshan is the only channel to have such a wide reach, it is the only capable broadcast channel to make kids content available on a wide scale nationally.

Sahu had given the example of a Doordarshan team which travelled extensively to villages to talk to people. Almost every house had a connection of FreeDish except for one. Sahu was told by the elders in the house that this was because there was no channel for kids. “So, it makes not only a good business sense for DD to launch a kids channel but also important from the Indian context,” Sahu had said.

She had said that at DD, they were working hard to create a dedicated Content Think Tank of experienced personalities to rope in the best content and mentor progression. Earlier in 2015, the wishlist of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry included a plea to the pubcaster to launch DD Kids.

June 16, 2017
FreeDish: English news channel among two come aboard (Updated)

NEW DELHI: Two more television channels, including the first English news channel, have come on board Doordarshan’s FreeDish platform. Though there were no bidders for the e-auction on 25 May 2017, the two channels were brought on board on a pro rata basis.

Additional director-general Sunil told Indiantelevision.com that RT Movies and NewsX – which is an English news channel – have been taken on a special pro rata basis till the next auction, which is expected in July.

Explaining the concept of pro rata, he said these channels are paying at a daily rate basis calculated against the reserve price of Rs 80 million for the period when they came on air till the next auction. This works out to Rs 2,19,178 per day.

However, they will have to taken part in the auction to remain on the platform under conditions set by Doordarshan.

Sunil also said that FreeDish was expected to take a quantum jump from the present eighty TV channels (apart from 32 radio cbannels) to 104 TV channels with the completion of the final trials of MPEG4, about which an announcement had been made in October last year.

On a question about FreeDish becoming capable of 250 channels within the next two years as announced by the Information and Broadcastng Ministry in Parliament in early April, Sunil said this was expected to be achieved by the third quarter of 2018.

In line with the ‘Digital India’ and ‘Make in India’, DD has implemented Indian CAS (iCAS) on DD FreeDish Platform. iCAS (which is an initiative of the central government) was introduced in the auction held last month. The introduction of iCAS will provide enhanced viewing experience.

Although Free Dish will remain free-to-air with no monthly or periodic fee with encryption, the viewers will be required to register with DD FreeDish on getting the new STB from DD authorized STB dealers.

DD officials said implementation of iCAS and authorisation of STB original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) by Doordarshan will give a major thrust to ‘Make in India’ and ‘Digital India’. At present, a majority of STBs are imported. However, the introduction of iCAS will help in standardisation of STBs and encourage quality STB manufacturing in India.

With analogue having been switched off, Parliament had been told that many stakeholders feel that FreeDish is the best option in Phase IV which covers rural India.

The only free-to-air DTH platform in the country, FreeDish earned Rs 2.8665 billion through auction of 54 slots in six auctions from 30 March 2016 to 14 February 2017. In comparison, DD had earned Rs 1.8034 billion in 2015-16.

Despite the reserve price of Rs 48 million till the 32nd auction, the highest bid for a slot was Rs 73 million for Sony Pal. The reserve price in the first five auctions was Rs 43 million and was raised to Rs 48 million in the 32nd auction. The reserve price for the 33rd auction was Rs 80 million.

FreeDish was launched with a modest bouquet of 33 channels in December 2004, and now carries eighty TV channels and 32 radio channels. This includes 22 Doordarshan channels and two parliamentary channels, seven general entertainment channels, 18 movie channels, 13 news channels, seven music channels, three religious channels and eight channels of other genres. The All-India Radio stations also piggy-back on the platform.

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MIB favours switching to DTH if consumers have problems with MSOs or LCOs

FreeDish aims to reach 150 channels, earned Rs 3 bn in a year

FreeDish’s May auction a damp squib with no bidder in sight

June 15, 2017
DTH subscriber growth slows down even further

BENGALURU: Despite the information and broadcasting (I&B) ministry extending the deadline for phase IV of cable television digitisation by three months to 31 March 2017, owing to the “unsatisfactory progress of installation of set top boxes (STBs) in phase IV areas”, reports submitted by the carriage industry indicate that subscriber additions in the extended period have been low.

Financial results of companies or entities from the carriage industry whose financial and limited operational data is available in the public domain – Airtel Digital TV (Airtel DTH), Dish TV, and Videocon DTH show poor subscriber adds in the quarter ended 31 March 2017 (fourth quarter, Q4-17). As a matter of fact, subscriber adds in Q4-17 was the lowest that the three Indian major operators reported in a quarter for the financial year ended 31 March 2017 (FY-17). The combined subscribers for all the three players grew 8.33 percent to 41.23 million in FY-17 from 38.06 million in FY-16. It maybe noted that subscriber numbers are generally rounded off by the players in their reports, in some case to an extent of 10,000. In FY-16, the three players had added about 65 percent more subscribers in absolute numbers at 4.93 million as compared to the 3.81 million added in FY-17.

Please refer to the figure below:

The DTH industry witnessed a slowdown in subscriber growth even in the previous year.Combined subscriber additions for the annual period ended 31 March 2016 (FY-16) vis-à-vis the previous year (FY-15) grew by 14.8percent of the three pay-direct to home operators in India. This subscriber growth rate was however a little less than half that these entities had in FY-15 at 24.7 percent as compared to FY-14.

Let us see where the three pay DTH players considered in this paper stand in the Indian DTH eco-system

Airtel DTH, Dish TV and Videocon d2h have about two thirds (65 percent) of market share of the DTH universe by private players in India. Of the other three players, according to a TRAI report Tata Sky has a market share of 23 percent, while Sun Direct and Reliance have a market share or 10 percent and 2 percent respectively. It may be noted that at present probably the largest DTH player in India could be the government’s FreeDish, but since it is a free service, no subscriber data is available even with Prasar Bharati. Please refer to the chart below:

June 5, 2017