MUMBAI: Bharti Airtel’s DTH arm Airtel Digital TV has seen a 10.4 per cent revenue growth in the quarter ending 31 December 2017 (Q3-2018) compared with Q3 2017 (y-o-y). Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) grew by 22 per cent y-o-y in Q3 2018. Airtel DTH’s contribution to the overall Airtel revenue and EBITDA has stayed the same at 6 per cent.
Airtel Digital TV’s revenue for Q3 2018 saw revenue rise to Rs 964.2 core from Rs 936.9 crore in Q2 2018 and higher than the Rs 873.5 crore y-o-y. EBITDA rose to Rs 370.8 crore from Rs 351.7 crore in Q2 and Rs 302.6 crore y-o-y.
Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) saw a huge jump from Rs 123 crore in Q2 2018 to Rs 150 crore this quarter, a 22 per cent rise. This was 2.2 times than Rs 68.4 crore reported in the year ago quarter.
The DTH segment assets were Rs 2,659.1 crore, up from Rs 2,590.7 crore in the previous quarter and Rs 2,399.3 crore in Q3 2017. The segment’s liabilities increased to Rs 33,19.3 crore from Rs 3,279.8 crore in the previous quarter and Rs 3,030.8 in Q3 2017.
Airtel Digital TV’s capex during the quarter under review was Rs 236 crore, 11 per cent lower y-o-y from as against Rs 265 crore spent in the corresponding year ago quarter. Cumulative investments increased by 8 per cent y-o-y to Rs 7,799.3 crore from Rs 7,212.7
Subscribers grew by 3.1 per cent to 1.3937 crore, up from 1.3521 crore in the previous quarter and a 10.7 per cent increase y-o-y from 1.2588 crore. A total of 416,000 subscribers were added in the corresponding quarter. Average revenue per user (ARPU) remained flat at Rs 233 (just 0.4 per cent growth from the corresponding quarter a year ago). Monthly churn reported for Q3 2018 stood at 1.2 per cent (1.4 per cent reported in the previous quarter; 1.3 per cent in Q2 2017).
The DTH business saw no additions of districts this quarter and the number remained at 639 numbers.
Airtel’s overall revenue dropped by 12.9 per cent y-o-y to Rs 20,319 crore from Rs 23,336 crore. Its revenue dropped to Rs 15,294 crore, 11.3 per cent y-o-y and down from the Rs 16818.3 crore in the previous quarter. This was mainly due to mobile drop of 17.6 per cent. Mobile broadband customers increased by 64.9 per cent to 6.21 crore from 3.77 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. Mobile data traffic grew by more than 6 times to 110,600 crore MBs in the quarter as compared with 172,000 crore MBs in the corresponding quarter last year. Total India mobile subscribers increased by 2.9 per cent from the previous quarter to 29.0 crore, which is also 9.1 per cent growth y-o-y.
Airtel’s profit before tax stood at Rs 838.1 crore, lower than the Rs 1298.8 crore reported in the previous quarter. Net income also dropped to Rs 305.8 crore from Rs 343 crore.
Airtel India and South Asia MD and CEO Gopal Vittal said. “Regulatory fiat in the form of a cut in domestic IUC rates has exacerbated the industry ARPU decline in Q3 18. The recent announcement of reduction in international termination rates will further accentuate this decline and benefit foreign operators with no commensurate benefit to customers. Continued investments in data capacities, strategic partnerships with content and handset providers and focus on customer friendly innovations like data rollover has led to healthy customer additions of 0.81 crore during the quarter. Q3 2018 has also seen the highest ever broadband site deployment of 32K in any quarter, complementing the robust data and voice traffic growth of 544 per cent and 50 per cent respectively on a y-o-y basis. We are committed to remaining the operator of choice for all customers in this rapidly consolidating industry.”
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