ITV

Tag: Dish TV India

  • Dish TV’s D2H repositions itself as direct-to-heart

    Dish TV’s D2H repositions itself as direct-to-heart

    Mumbai : Dish TV India’s D2H has rolled out a campaign introducing the new brand positioning “direct-to-heart.” The campaign shows how D2H brings families together and gives them the sheer joy of sharing happy moments while watching TV.

    Featuring brand ambassador Rishabh Pant, the campaign was conceptualised by Lowe Lintas. The brand will run the campaign through TV, BTL, digital platforms, and home channels to amplify it.

    D2H in its new brand avatar focuses on its connection, going beyond just a provider of content to an enabler of collective viewing for Indian families. This is captured in the main thought, as the brand reframes itself in the “direct-to-home” (DTH) category by positioning itself as a connection that touches the lives of consumers and forms a bond that’s “direct-to-heart.”

    The industry has changed over the last two years owing to the pandemic. The budget-conscious subscribers’ pockets have stretched because of successive lockdowns, while consumers in the upper and middle segments are moving towards HD and OTT platforms. To cater to the changing needs of its customers, D2H overhauled the complete packaging. Over the years, the brand has designed affordable monthly SD and HD combos, made HD add-ons economical, and made the combos simple and easy to understand. It has also come up with competitive market offers and lucrative trade schemes for the partners.

    Speaking of the repositioning campaign, Dish TV India group CEO Anil Dua said, “As a DTH company, we have the unique advantage of having two brands, and we are leveraging this by using the power of both our brands. In this context, for our D2H brand, we have launched completely new packaging, introduced extremely competitive customer offers to the market, brought in a new brand ambassador, and have now launched a new brand campaign. This campaign is the culmination of a year-long deep dive into the brand’s connection with its loyal customers to draw out key insights. The new campaign leverages these insights and brings together the association of the D2H brand with cricket and family viewing into the creative platform of “direct-to-heart.””

    Commenting on the new D2H campaign, Dish TV India D2H corporate head-marketing Sugato Banerji said, “We are increasingly witnessing a fragmentation of families, each one busy with different things and pursuits. In this context, the new brand view we are taking in D2H is that TV has a large role in bringing families together. Our new campaign is built on this understanding and draws from the new positioning of D2H, direct-to-heart. With the large-scale investments we are making in strengthening the D2H brand. I am confident that we will gain market share in the next few months.”

    Speaking from the creative side, Lowe Lintas regional creative officer Vasudha Misra said, “In an age of fragmented content consumption, the new brand expression of “direct-to-heart” touches upon the joy that single-platform access to great entertainment can bring to the entire family. Our story revolves around an exuberant kid as he ‘breaks the fourth wall’ with his favourite cricketer, Rishabh Pant, seeking his help so that he can rally his family members to witness a nail-biting finish. A sweet and innocent take that leaves you with a smile.”

  • Dish TV India’s consolidated net profit declines 64.47% in Q1 FY23

    Dish TV India’s consolidated net profit declines 64.47% in Q1 FY23

    Mumbai: Dish TV India on Wednesday announced their financial results for the first quarter of the financial year 2022–2023. The company’s reported net profit declined 64.47 per cent to Rs 17.85 crore in the quarter ended June 2022 as against Rs 50.24 crore during the previous quarter ended June 2021.

    Operating revenues for the quarter stood at Rs 608.6 crore. For the same period, the earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda) was Rs 323.8 crore with a margin of 53.2 percent and profit after tax was Rs 17.8 crore.

    In the quarter ended June 2022, sales fell 16.74 per cent to Rs 608.63 crore, compared to Rs 730.97 crore in the previous quarter ended June 2021.

    The company paid-off Rs 90.3 crore of debt during the quarter, thus reducing its overall debt to Rs 285.3 crore at the end of the first quarter of 2023 as compared to Rs 375.6 crore at the close of fiscal 2022.

    The first quarter of the current fiscal, to some extent, was an extension of the fourth quarter of the previous fiscal. Not only did inflation-linked cautiousness in viewers remain intact, the changing landscape of the entertainment industry continued to influence subscriber retention and growth.

    Dish TV chose the middle path and maintained a moderate pace of capital expenditure while prioritising debt repayment over new acquisitions.

    External factors dominated and impacted the recharge behaviour of DTH subscribers, with top-end consumers swapping between DTH and streaming content and bottom-end subscribers alternating between free-to-air and pay DTH, thus affecting revenues and net base.

    With a growing number of subscribers having access to OTT subscriptions, India’s streaming video market is expected to garner a revenue of Rs. 490 billion by 2027, up from Rs. 210 billion in 2022, according to the latest industry report.

    Speaking about the results, Dish TV India Group CEO Anil Dua said, “In the changing industry landscape, Dish TV is committed to exploring and embracing new possibilities that would enable it to offer a more contemporary and bespoke service bouquet. As an entertainment distribution company, we would want to be a one-stop destination for viewers seeking video content and continue working towards that objective.”

    Dish TV India chairman Jawahar Goel commented, “The company has been actively pursuing relevant technological developments in the business space and looks forward to aligning with those that will help it achieve its strategic and commercial goals.”

    “As an industry, we also continue to seek and hope for a level playing field in the distribution space, by way of uniform application of licence fees to either all players or to none of them, as Free DTH, Headend in the Sky (HITS), OTT and cable TV still remain outside the ambit of licence fees,” added Goel.

  • Dish TV India reports operating revenue of Rs 2802.5 crore for FY22

    Dish TV India reports operating revenue of Rs 2802.5 crore for FY22

    Mumbai: Dish TV India has reported its results for the fourth quarter and the financial year ended on 31 March 2022. The company reported operating revenue of Rs 2,802.5 crore for the financial year and Rs 642.7 crore for the fourth quarter.

    Subscription revenues stood at Rs 2,531.1 crore for the year and Rs 574.8 crore for the quarter. Profit before exceptional items and tax stood at Rs 272.7 crore for the year and Rs 41.8 crore for the quarter.

    The exceptional items for the quarter and fiscal year 2021-2022 include Rs 203.0 crore as an impairment charge on intangible assets under development and related advances Rs 1,616.9 crore and Rs 717.7 crore respectively, as an impairment charge on the goodwill and intangible assets acquired from Videocon d2h in 2017-18 and Rs 116.3 crore recognised as foreign exchange fluctuation loss due to the ongoing economic crisis in Sri Lanka.

    The company continued to deleverage its balance sheet for the fourth year in a row and paid off Rs 434.3 crore during the year thus reducing its overall debt to Rs 375.6 crore at the end of fiscal 2022 as compared to fiscal 2021, which was at Rs 809.9 crore.

    The company reported a loss after including exceptional items and tax of Rs 1,867.23 crore for the year and Rs 2,031.99 crore for the quarter.

    Management analysis

    As per the management analysis, the fourth quarter and fiscal 2022 saw the expansion of the viewers’ slate of content. The company offers over 850 plus channels in the linear space and 40 odd big & small OTT platforms offering movies, TV shows and web series. The time spent watching content per user per day went up to 4.5 hours compared to 3.6 hours in 2018.

    Businesses across sectors in distribution or content are facing reducing customer stickiness, falling subscriber numbers and a perpetual capex (capital expenditure) cycle.

    The direct-to-home (DTH) industry in India has been running the capital expenditure treadmill to increase the number of paying subscribers but, competition from streaming platforms, free-to-air government-run distribution platforms, telcos, cable TV and intermittent undercutting within the industry itself, has been either churning subscribers or intensifying capex or both, said the statement.

    Dish TV India recorded 3.4 per cent higher new additions during the year but remained vulnerable to shifting viewing habits which continued to influence the recharge behaviour of its subscribers. The quarter also witnessed lingering effects of the pandemic related weakness in consumer sentiment with global geo-political developments and resultant inflationary spikes worsening buyer confidence. High churn resulted in a net reduction in the subscriber base during the quarter.

    Dish TV India group CEO and executive director Anil Dua said, “Pay-TV consumer sentiment has been oscillating between indulging in content to sometimes being frugal with it. Consumers have been choosier than ever, often moving between linear and streaming content, as a result renewing their subscriptions less regularly. Dish TV values customers’ changing tastes and preferences and is working towards adapting to and leveraging these emerging trends.”

    Dish TV India’s OTT platform Watcho crossed the 50 million downloads mark at the end of the quarter increasing its presence by 25 million during the year.

    “These are challenging yet exciting times and we are reviewing everything that has existed for years. We are actively looking beyond our contemporary offerings of hybrid boxes and OTT platform Watcho, and are working towards new ways to serve our valued subscribers, both existing as well as new,” he added.

    Dish TV India chairman and managing director Jawaher Goel said, “Competition is always good for the growth of any industry, what is important though is that there should be a level playing field. Pay channel procurement which is subject to strict regulations for the pay-TV sector is under forbearance when it comes to broadcaster owned channels being streamed on their own OTT platforms. This is despite cross-holding restrictions that prevent broadcasters from getting into distribution. Moreover, within pay-TV, DTH is the only business which is subject to a license fee payable to the government. As we work towards keeping up with the times, we also hope that a common licensing regime and forbearance over excessive regulation will be the norm going forward.”

  • Dish TV India reappoints Jawahar Goel as MD

    Dish TV India reappoints Jawahar Goel as MD

    Mumbai: Dish TV India has reappointed Jawahar Lal Goel as its managing director (MD) till 25 March 2025, the company said in a regulatory filing late Friday night. The DTH service company also reappointed Anil Kumar Dua as the whole-time director for the same period as Goel.

    Goel who is also the chairman of the company’s board shall continue to remain the same. “Goel has been actively involved in the creation and expansion of the company and has been a pioneer of the direct-to-home (DTH) services in India,” the company said in its filing.

    Goel led the initiatives of the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) as its president from September 2006 to September 2010. He has also been on the board of various committees and task forces set up by the ministry of information and broadcasting (MIB) and continues to address several critical matters related to the industry.

    He is a prime architect in establishing India’s most modern and advanced technological infrastructure for the implementation of conditional access system (CAS) and direct-to-home (DTH) services.

    Dua has worked in several well-known entities such as Hindustan Unilever, Gillette and Hero MotoCorp. Prior to joining Dish TV India Limited, he was the OTE Group MD. He has experience in various facets of business management such as brand building, marketing, customer experience, supply chain, and strategy.

    He has also been an active participant in different forums like CII, Siam, Fada, and Ficci, and has also been the chairman of the Retail Council of the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM). He was also on the board of the Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC).

    Dua is an engineer from IIT Delhi and an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad.

  • Dish TV India reports third-quarter revenue of Rs 7107 million

    Dish TV India reports third-quarter revenue of Rs 7107 million

    Mumbai: Dish TV India Ltd has reported its third-quarter fiscal 2022 results on Monday. The company reported operating revenue of Rs 7107 million for the quarter ended 31 December 20201. Its subscription revenue stood at Rs 6459 million, EBIDTA was Rs 4260 million and profit after tax was Rs 802 million.

    The company paid off debt of Rs 1031 million during the quarter with the resultant interest expense coming down by 57.9 per cent on a year-on-year basis. It had a closing debt of Rs 4535 million at the end of the quarter.

    In the third quarter, Dish TV India ramped up gross acquisitions to almost pre-pandemic levels, though continued dependence on exclusively internal funds restricted the ability of the business to go all out thus keeping net additions under pressure.

    “Consumers typically tend to step up spending during festivals with the season traditionally accounting for the majority of the annual revenues of businesses,” said the statement. “Expecting a similar trend and considering the earlier subdued demand due to repeated waves of the pandemic, Diwali 2021 witnessed aggressive marketing by consumer-focused companies. While higher marketing spends did help generate incremental acquisitions, consumer spending went below par once the pent-up demand was exhausted. Early cases of the third wave of the pandemic in mid-December too had a negative effect on consumption.”

    During the quarter, Dish TV India took a price hike of around 25 per cent on both its standard-definition and high-definition hardware. “With rural stress and inflationary pressures, price-sensitive customers at the bottom of the pyramid remained vulnerable to churn to the free DTH platform. Streaming platforms, as well as content bundling by telecom players, continued to give competition to DTH service providers,” said the statement.

    “As a category, DTH has been facing competition at various levels however the platform has the unique strengths that will continue to set it apart from other video platforms,” said Dish TV India Limited group CEO Anil Dua. “We remain committed to offering the best solution to our subscribers, be it in the linear or OTT space and hope to change the game with innovative offerings and winning partnerships.”

    The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), on stakeholders’ request, recently extended the deadline for enforcing the new tariff order (NTO) 2.0 to 1 June from the earlier fixed deadline of 1 April.

    “The DTH industry has been working on the implementation of the new tariff order (NTO) keeping in mind the earlier deadline however the extended timeline will give us even more time to sort out any migration issues,” said Dish TV India Limited CMD Jawahar Goel. “We would also be watching the developments on the litigation front while simultaneously working towards implementation of the order.”

  • Dish TV India schedules 33rd AGM for 30 December

    Dish TV India schedules 33rd AGM for 30 December

    Mumbai: Dish TV India’s board of directors has scheduled the 33rd annual general meeting (AGM) for 30 December.

    The company has extended the timeline for the AGM several times since it was first scheduled to be held on 27 September. It applied for the extension in view of the issues arising out of the pendency of an application filed by its shareholder Yes Bank before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Mumbai bench and in order to ensure compliance of all applicable laws and guidelines in this matter

    Dish TV India and Yes Bank are engaged in a boardroom battle where the latter sought the removal of directors of the company including managing director Jawaher Lal Goel and independent directors Dr Rashmi Aggarwal, Bhagwan Das Narang, Shankar Agarwal, and Ashok Mathai Kurien.

    The bank has proposed the appointment of a new board including Akash Suri, Sanjay Nambiar, Vijay Bhatt, Haripriya Padmanabhan, Girish Paranjape, Narayan Vasudeo Prabhutendulkar, and Arvind Nachaya Mapangada.

    Dish TV India board rejected the EGM notice by Yes Bank stating that a resolution to reconstitute the board can only be placed post receipt of approval from the ministry of information and broadcasting and other requisite approvals for appointment of new directors, within statutory guidelines.

    Yes Bank moved to NCLT with a petition to call for an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) of shareholders of Dish TV India and pass its resolution.

  • SC orders stay on criminal proceedings against Yes Bank

    SC orders stay on criminal proceedings against Yes Bank

    Mumbai: The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered a stay on the criminal proceedings against Yes Bank initiated by Essel group founder Subhash Chandra. The court has granted three weeks to file the counter affidavit.

    Furthermore, Dish TV India has informed its shareholders on the postponement of its 33rd annual general meeting that was scheduled for 30 November. The company has received approval for an extension for time for holding the AGM by the Registrar of Companies. While Dish TV India has not announced the next date for the AGM, the period cannot exceed more than one month from the current scheduled date of the AGM.

    On 6 November, Dish TV India had disclosed that it received a notice from the crime branch in Gautam Buddh Nagar restricting Yes Bank from dealing in/and or exercising any rights over equity shares of Dish TV India held by Yes Bank until completion of an investigation being conducted by them. There were no details of the nature of the investigation disclosed. Yes Bank moved to the Allahabad high court to quash the case which later escalated to the Supreme Court.

    Earlier, Yes Bank, which has a 25.63 per cent shareholding in Dish TV India, had sought the removal of directors of the company including managing director Jawaher Lal Goel and independent directors Dr. Rashmi Aggarwal, Bhagwan Das Narang, Shankar Agarwal, and Ashok Mathai Kurien by calling for an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) of shareholders.

    The bank proposed the appointment of a new board including Akash Suri, Sanjay Nambiar, Vijay Bhatt, Haripriya Padmanabhan, Girish Paranjape, Narayan Vasudeo Prabhutendulkar, and Arvind Nachaya Mapangada.

    Dish TV India board rejected the EGM notice by Yes Bank stating that a resolution to reconstitute the board can only be placed post receipt of approval from the ministry of information and broadcasting and other requisite approvals for appointment of new directors, within statutory guidelines.

    Yes Bank had moved to National Company Law Tribunal, Mumbai with a petition to call for an EGM of shareholders of Dish TV India and pass its resolution.

  • NCLT adjourns Dish TV India-Yes Bank matter till 22 December

    NCLT adjourns Dish TV India-Yes Bank matter till 22 December

    Mumbai: The Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has scheduled the next hearing of the Dish TV-Yes Bank matter on 22 December. It has also allowed Yes Bank two weeks’ time to file its reply in its case against Dish TV India.

    The bench also said that Dish TV India could file a rejoinder, if any, within one week, according to a report by Moneycontrol.

    Yes Bank had sought NCLT’s direction to call for an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) of shareholders of Dish TV India to pass a resolution for the reconstitution of the company’s board.

    On 6 September, Yes Bank had sent a requisition notice to Dish TV India’s board to convene a special meeting of the shareholders seeking the removal of its board of directors including managing director Jawaher Lal Goel and independent directors Dr Rashmi Aggarwal, Bhagwan Das Narang, Shankar Agarwal, and Ashok Mathai Kurien.

    The bank proposed the appointment of a new board including Akash Suri, Sanjay Nambiar, Vijay Bhatt, Haripriya Padmanabhan, Girish Paranjape, Narayan Vasudeo Prabhutendulkar, and Arvind Nachaya Mapangada.

    Yes Bank holds a 25.63 per cent stake in the company. It stated that it sought the removal of the present board of directors on the grounds that the board approved a Rs 1000 crore rights issue process despite objections raised by the bank, solely to dilute the shareholding of the bank.

    Dish TV India board rejected the EGM notice by Yes Bank stating that a resolution to reconstitute the board can only be placed post receipt of approval from the ministry of information and broadcasting and other requisite approvals for appointment of new directors, within statutory guidelines.

  • Dish TV partners with Mogi IO for image optimisation solution

    Dish TV partners with Mogi IO for image optimisation solution

    Mumbai: DishTV has joined hands with Mogi IO to deliver to its customers highly optimised image quality that enables faster website download speeds. The cooperation between the two entertainment solution providers will help with superior user engagement and better economics of scale, said the statement.

    The partnership between DishTV and Mogi Solutions will optimise the images by 80 per cent implying an 80 per cent reduction in bandwidth usage and data transfer cost. This results in reducing the bounce rate and increasing the footfall of the website. Faster downloads will ensure customer satisfaction and improved monetisation.

    “It is a very prestigious tie-up for us when one of the leading media brands, DishTV joins hands for our solution. This proves the scalability of our solutions and demonstrates to the market our technology strength,” said Mogi IO co-founder and chief executive officer Vikrant Khanna.

    “Faster website download speeds would result in enhanced SEO ranking on Google algorithms. Organic ranking is good for organic footfalls, thus making a great economical breakthrough,” he added.

    The pandemic has bolstered content consumption. Millennial and Gen Z consumers are drivers of this consumption and prefer to consume online videos. Globally, the trend is similar with video consumption constituting 80 per cent of internet traffic. At the same time, the global content distribution network (CDN) infrastructure, on which content streaming happens, is falling short of the demand.

    Mogi’s has built a patented streaming engine that uses a multi-CDN technology to ensure a buffer-free experience that leads to faster content delivery. It also creates automatic redundancies in case of CDN failures so that the viewer experience remains seamless.

    “Following the pandemic, we witnessed an upsurge in visitors to our website. Dish TV is a mass brand and has customers spread across all town classes and uses various devices. Network speeds also vary across the country. Keeping this in mind, we decided to get Mogi IO’s help to make our website more accessible and optimized for this set of customers, by implementing their image optimisation services,” said Dish TV India head of marketing for DishTV and Watcho Sukhpreet Singh. “We are hopeful this will help us improve our customers’ digital experiences, which is something that DishTV as a brand is always striving for.”

  • Dish TV India focused on repayment of debt in Q2 FY22

    Dish TV India focused on repayment of debt in Q2 FY22

    Mumbai: Dish TV India has reported its second quarter results for FY 2022. The company reported consolidated subscription revenues of Rs 6445 million and operating revenues of Rs 7181 million. It reported subscription revenues of Rs 6659 million and operating revenues Rs 7310 million in the previous quarter.

    The company has tapered down its debt to Rs 5566 million while adding more than 0.6 million subscribers at the gross level. At a net level though, it recorded negative additions prioritising repayment of debt over adding fresh subscribers. Dish TV India repaid debt of Rs 697 million during the quarter to arrive at a closing debt of Rs 5566 million.

    “It was business as usual at India’s leading DTH Company despite some chaotic developments on the corporate front towards the end of the quarter,” the company noted. It is referring to its boardroom battle with shareholder Yes Bank on the issue of reconstitution of the board.

    Retention and upgradation focused campaigns continued in line with the objective of increasing the lifetime value of subscribers. Furthermore, to increase stickiness, ‘Watcho’- the in-house OTT app of the company was loaded with freshly curated content. The platform debuted several new web series to further enhance the complimentary bouquet of offerings for Dish TV India subscribers. ‘Watcho’ continued to gain strength as an OTT platform with a strong semi-urban presence in addition to significant tier-1 visibility. The app has recorded total cumulative downloads of 36 million so far.

    “We continue to remain focused in our efforts to drive business performance using tools that enhance the viewing experience of subscribers on both, the traditional as well as the OTT offering,” said Dish TV India group chief executive officer Anil Dua. “We remain sensitive to changing consumer needs and look forward to new launches and a wider audience base.”

    During the quarter, Dish TV announced the launch of its ‘QR Scan Feature.’ The scan to pay feature aims at giving customers a hassle-free single click payment experience when it comes to recharging their Dish TV account or paying utility bills. Dish TV and d2h subscribers will now be able to pay their bills in a few simple steps by scanning the QR code on the company’s websites, www.dishtv.in and www.d2h.com using any UPI app or wallet. UPI is currently the easiest and the most secure way of digital payments owing to its multifactor authentication which requires the users to verify themselves via multiple sources.

    The onset of the festival period towards the end of the second quarter along with some normalization in consumer spending post the second wave of the pandemic encouraged the launch of customised new offerings for existing as well as new subscribers. Dish TV India launched a special ‘Get 1 for 5 Recharge Offer’ as per which a complimentary month of subscription was provided for every five months of recharge. In addition, a ‘Lucky Recharge Offer’ wherein customers could avail up to 100 per cent cashback on recharge of Rs 501 was also launched.

    “Household spending however did not fully recover during the quarter and despite a fairly extensive sports calendar, recharges were not in line with earlier years. Both, streaming platforms as well as Free Dish, continued to give competition to conventional distributors with some of the DTH subscribers at the upper end exploring OTT services while those at the lower end sampling Free Dish services,” said the company.

    Operating revenues for the quarter were Rs 7181 million. EBITDA was Rs 4270 million. EBITDA margin was at 59.4 per cent. Profit before tax for the quarter was Rs 553 million. Net profit for the quarter was Rs 354 million.

    “Consumers typically tend to step up spending during festivals and the festive season traditionally accounts for majority of the annual revenues of the company. Upbeat consumer spending is expected during the festival quarter this year compared to the same quarter last year,” said the company in a statement.

    NTO 2.0

    The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) recently extended the deadline for enforcing the new tariff order (NTO) 2.0 by announcing an execution plan for migrating subscribers to the new regime. Trai directed distribution platforms to ensure that subscribers avail of pay-tv services as per NTO 2.0 norms with effect from 1 April 2022, moving the earlier 1 December 2021 deadline. While distribution platforms like DTH and cable will have to seek subscriber choice till 31 March, broadcasters will have to submit the required information to Trai by 31 December.

    Several broadcasters had earlier challenged the NTO 2.0 in various high courts. However, in an order passed on 30 June, the Bombay high court had upheld the validity of NTO 2.0, except the second proviso to the twin conditions which stated that the a-la-carte rates of each pay channel (MRP) forming part of a bouquet shall in no case exceed three times the average rate of a pay channel of the bouquet of which such pay channel is a part.

    Broadcasters had then approached the Supreme Court challenging the Bombay high court order. The Supreme Court is yet to announce its decision.

    “We would be watching the developments on the litigation front for now while simultaneously acting towards implementation of the order,” said Dish TV India chairman and managing director Jawahar Goel.