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Tag: Gopal Vittal

  • Jio-Apple strike a win-win deal as Airtel plans aggressive 4G offer

    Jio-Apple strike a win-win deal as Airtel plans aggressive 4G offer

    MUMBAI: Even as Reliance Jio is giving a tough fight to the market leader Airtel, and other leading incumbent operators Vodafone and Idea, it is making significant tie-ups with cell-phone makers to up its 4G gameplan. Substantial investments are being made in high-speed telecom networks in India, said Apple CEO Tim Cook citing Reliance Jio’s 4G roll-out although he admitted its smartphone has “not done as well” in the country.

    Airtel meantime is reportedly planning to launch aggressive 4G bundled offers to take on Reliance Jio as India’s No 1 mobile carrier struggles to boost penetration and revive its slowing data revenue growth amid competition. Bharti Airtel managing director – India & South Asia Gopal Vittal agreed that it’s difficult to compete with a free services offer as it expects Jio’s full-fledged price launch to take place in December. Vittal said it will approach the regulator to clear any confusion over interconnection points (PoIs) as it has provided more PoIs to Jio than any other telco.

    Reliance Jio was the first of its kind all-IP network in India with 4G coverage in 18,000 cities and 200,000 villages, Cook said in the company’s fourth quarter earnings call. He said Apple is partnering with Reliance Jio, which is offering a free year of service to purchasers of new iPhones, to ensure “great iPhone performance” on their network. “Our iPhone sales in India were up over 50 per cent in fiscal 2016 compared to the prior year, and we believe we’re just beginning to scratch the surface of this large and growing market opportunity,” Cook said.

    He, however, noted that Apple’s smartphone has “not done as well” in India in general and one of the key reasons for that is the “(high-speed telecom networks) infrastructure hasn’t been there”. The Apple head was optimistic on the efforts being made by the Narendra Modi-led government to create jobs and develop infrastructure.

    Whether India could in future be as big of an opportunity as China for Apple, Cook said it is important to look not only at per capita income in India but also the number of people that are or will move into the middle class over the next decade. He said this class will “really want a smartphone, and I think we can compete well for some percentage of those.

    “I think it’s clear that the population of India will exceed China sometime in probably the next decade or so. I think it will take longer for the GDP to rival it, but that’s not critical for us to have a great success there,” he said.

  • Q2-17: Airtel Digital TV revenue up, sees highest subscriber growth

    Q2-17: Airtel Digital TV revenue up, sees highest subscriber growth

    BENGALURU: Indian telecom major Bharti Airtel Limited’s Digital TV Services segment (DTH segment) reported 21.9 percent year-over-year (y-o-y) increase in operating revenues for the quarter ended 30 September 2016 (Q2-17, current quarter). Also, Operating Profit (Earnings Before interest and Tax – EBIT) of the DTH segment in the current quarter more than quadrupled (by 4.11 times) y-o-y.

    Airtel DTH reported revenues of Rs 854.5 crore in Q2-17 and Rs 706.8 crore in Q2-16. EBIT for the corresponding periods was Rs 69.9 crore (8.2 percent margin of the segment’s operating revenue) and Rs 1.7 crore (2.4 percent margin of the segment’s operating revenue) respectively.

    However, quarter-over-quarter (q-o-q) the segment reported 42.7 percent drop in EBIT for the current quarter as compared to Rs 121.9 crore (14.6 percent margin of the segment’s operating revenue) in the immediate trailing quarter. Revenue in Q2-17 was 2.1 percent higher q-o-q than Rs 836.9 crore in Q1-17.

    Subscription numbers, ARPU

    Airtel’s DTH segment added 18.29 lakh subscribers between Q2-16 and Q2-17, or a 17.3 percent y-o-y increase. The company says that this is the highest growth in percentage terms over seventeen quarters. It had 124.05 lakh subscribers as on 30 September 2016. Q-o-q, the segment witnessed a 2.1 percent growth (2.56 lakh adds) in subscribers from 121.49 lakh in Q1-17.

    ARPU in Q2-17 increased to Rs 232 from Rs 224 in the corresponding year ago quarter, but declined marginally (by Re 1) from Rs 233 in the immediate trailing quarter.

    Airtel numbers

    Bharti Airtel Limited saw a 3.4 percent increase in operating revenue to Rs 24,651.5 crore in Q2-17 as compared to Rs 23,835.7 crore in Q2-16, but witnessed a 3.5 percent q-o-q decline from Rs 25,546.5 crore. Profit after tax (PAT) in the current quarter declined 4.9 percent y-o-y to Rs 1,460.7 crore (5.9 percent margin) from Rs 1,536.1 crore (6.4 percent margin) and was almost flat (0.1 percent decline) q-o-q as compared to Rs 1,462 crore (5.7 percent margin).

    The JIO effect – Company speak.

    In a statement, Airtel MD and CEO, India & South Asia, Gopal Vittal said, “Our strong focus on enhancing customer experience and building a robust network has resulted in continued acceleration of revenue market share. Overall revenue momentum in India has been sustained during Q2 with a growth of 10.1 percent y-o-y. This is primarily due to the strong performance of our non-mobile businesses which grew in aggregate at 18.8 percent y-o-y, albeit our mobile business has experienced a slowdown in growths due to free services being offered by a new operator. But, we remain excited about the long term opportunity in India and believe that with the recently acquired spectrum, we are well positioned to lead India’s data revolution”.

     

  • Q2-17: Airtel Digital TV revenue up, sees highest subscriber growth

    Q2-17: Airtel Digital TV revenue up, sees highest subscriber growth

    BENGALURU: Indian telecom major Bharti Airtel Limited’s Digital TV Services segment (DTH segment) reported 21.9 percent year-over-year (y-o-y) increase in operating revenues for the quarter ended 30 September 2016 (Q2-17, current quarter). Also, Operating Profit (Earnings Before interest and Tax – EBIT) of the DTH segment in the current quarter more than quadrupled (by 4.11 times) y-o-y.

    Airtel DTH reported revenues of Rs 854.5 crore in Q2-17 and Rs 706.8 crore in Q2-16. EBIT for the corresponding periods was Rs 69.9 crore (8.2 percent margin of the segment’s operating revenue) and Rs 1.7 crore (2.4 percent margin of the segment’s operating revenue) respectively.

    However, quarter-over-quarter (q-o-q) the segment reported 42.7 percent drop in EBIT for the current quarter as compared to Rs 121.9 crore (14.6 percent margin of the segment’s operating revenue) in the immediate trailing quarter. Revenue in Q2-17 was 2.1 percent higher q-o-q than Rs 836.9 crore in Q1-17.

    Subscription numbers, ARPU

    Airtel’s DTH segment added 18.29 lakh subscribers between Q2-16 and Q2-17, or a 17.3 percent y-o-y increase. The company says that this is the highest growth in percentage terms over seventeen quarters. It had 124.05 lakh subscribers as on 30 September 2016. Q-o-q, the segment witnessed a 2.1 percent growth (2.56 lakh adds) in subscribers from 121.49 lakh in Q1-17.

    ARPU in Q2-17 increased to Rs 232 from Rs 224 in the corresponding year ago quarter, but declined marginally (by Re 1) from Rs 233 in the immediate trailing quarter.

    Airtel numbers

    Bharti Airtel Limited saw a 3.4 percent increase in operating revenue to Rs 24,651.5 crore in Q2-17 as compared to Rs 23,835.7 crore in Q2-16, but witnessed a 3.5 percent q-o-q decline from Rs 25,546.5 crore. Profit after tax (PAT) in the current quarter declined 4.9 percent y-o-y to Rs 1,460.7 crore (5.9 percent margin) from Rs 1,536.1 crore (6.4 percent margin) and was almost flat (0.1 percent decline) q-o-q as compared to Rs 1,462 crore (5.7 percent margin).

    The JIO effect – Company speak.

    In a statement, Airtel MD and CEO, India & South Asia, Gopal Vittal said, “Our strong focus on enhancing customer experience and building a robust network has resulted in continued acceleration of revenue market share. Overall revenue momentum in India has been sustained during Q2 with a growth of 10.1 percent y-o-y. This is primarily due to the strong performance of our non-mobile businesses which grew in aggregate at 18.8 percent y-o-y, albeit our mobile business has experienced a slowdown in growths due to free services being offered by a new operator. But, we remain excited about the long term opportunity in India and believe that with the recently acquired spectrum, we are well positioned to lead India’s data revolution”.

     

  • Bharti Airtel Ltd plans to reduce carbon footprint; transforms 40,000 sites across India

    Bharti Airtel Ltd plans to reduce carbon footprint; transforms 40,000 sites across India

     MUMBAI: Bharti Airtel Limited has announced the migration of 40,000 of its network sites across India to Green technology. In continuation with the company’s long term commitment towards Green network initiatives Airtel’s network transformation program ‘Project Leap’ is now focusing heavily on a series of fresh initiatives towards a greener environment and building sustainable network for the future. 

    Under Project Leap, Airtel will establish a world-class and future-ready network, while committing to bring down its carbon footprint emission by 70% by 2018.

    Commenting on the company’s Green network initiatives, Bharti Airtel (India & South Asia) MD and CEO Gopal Vittal said, “As a responsible corporate we are concerned about the environment and have undertaken a host of initiatives to promote the use of greener technology. We are committed to bringing down the carbon emission by 70% and are taking all measures including bringing in state-of-art technology and partnering with the best globally. We have maintained strict adherence to Indian emission norms along with our company safeguard policy – thereby ensuring that emissions from network sites are safer than those from the light bulbs we use at homes.  This is an important step towards our commitment to build a future ready and sustainable network.” 

    Additionally, Airtel has adopted a range of innovative methods like reducing power consumption by switching off unused capacity of its network sites during lean periods. It is also reducing power consumption and air wave emissions by optimizing signal transmission between the network and the device.

    “We plan to adopt solar and new battery technologies in a big way and double our Green network sites by 2020. With a strategic focus on creating a green network, we remain committed to learning from the telecom industry’s best practices from across the globe. We are confident that our Green measures will work towards speeding up the development of a clean, safe and future ready network that will deliver a world-class service experience for our customers – now, and for years to come”, added Vittal.

    The company has already installed roof top solar power capacity base of 770 KWp and plans to increase this capacity to 1 MWp in coming months and enhancing renewable energy wheeling by solar/wind/hydro on core sites – thereby consuming > 65 GWH/Annum of green energy. It is also investing heavily into state-of-the-art radio technology that will help optimize both power and space. Of the total network installed base, 60% has been deployed on a zero footprint architecture with no air conditioning thereby reducing dependency on diesel. More than 40,000 of these Green network sites are designed to operate largely on battery-hybrid, lithium-ion and solar hybrid solutions with very little diesel consumption. Apart from these measures Airtel maintains strict adherence to Indian Emission Norms along with its own safeguards that ensures emissions from its network sites are safe. 

  • Bharti Airtel Ltd plans to reduce carbon footprint; transforms 40,000 sites across India

    Bharti Airtel Ltd plans to reduce carbon footprint; transforms 40,000 sites across India

     MUMBAI: Bharti Airtel Limited has announced the migration of 40,000 of its network sites across India to Green technology. In continuation with the company’s long term commitment towards Green network initiatives Airtel’s network transformation program ‘Project Leap’ is now focusing heavily on a series of fresh initiatives towards a greener environment and building sustainable network for the future. 

    Under Project Leap, Airtel will establish a world-class and future-ready network, while committing to bring down its carbon footprint emission by 70% by 2018.

    Commenting on the company’s Green network initiatives, Bharti Airtel (India & South Asia) MD and CEO Gopal Vittal said, “As a responsible corporate we are concerned about the environment and have undertaken a host of initiatives to promote the use of greener technology. We are committed to bringing down the carbon emission by 70% and are taking all measures including bringing in state-of-art technology and partnering with the best globally. We have maintained strict adherence to Indian emission norms along with our company safeguard policy – thereby ensuring that emissions from network sites are safer than those from the light bulbs we use at homes.  This is an important step towards our commitment to build a future ready and sustainable network.” 

    Additionally, Airtel has adopted a range of innovative methods like reducing power consumption by switching off unused capacity of its network sites during lean periods. It is also reducing power consumption and air wave emissions by optimizing signal transmission between the network and the device.

    “We plan to adopt solar and new battery technologies in a big way and double our Green network sites by 2020. With a strategic focus on creating a green network, we remain committed to learning from the telecom industry’s best practices from across the globe. We are confident that our Green measures will work towards speeding up the development of a clean, safe and future ready network that will deliver a world-class service experience for our customers – now, and for years to come”, added Vittal.

    The company has already installed roof top solar power capacity base of 770 KWp and plans to increase this capacity to 1 MWp in coming months and enhancing renewable energy wheeling by solar/wind/hydro on core sites – thereby consuming > 65 GWH/Annum of green energy. It is also investing heavily into state-of-the-art radio technology that will help optimize both power and space. Of the total network installed base, 60% has been deployed on a zero footprint architecture with no air conditioning thereby reducing dependency on diesel. More than 40,000 of these Green network sites are designed to operate largely on battery-hybrid, lithium-ion and solar hybrid solutions with very little diesel consumption. Apart from these measures Airtel maintains strict adherence to Indian Emission Norms along with its own safeguards that ensures emissions from its network sites are safe. 

  • Q2-2016: Airtel DTH YoY subscriber base grows 11%; revenue up 13%; EBIDTA up 53%

    Q2-2016: Airtel DTH YoY subscriber base grows 11%; revenue up 13%; EBIDTA up 53%

    BENGALURU: The direct to home (DTH) industry in India is continuing its bloom, if one were to go by the results reported by Bharti Airtel about its Digital TV services (Airtel DTH) for the quarter ended 30 September, 2015 (Q2-2015, current quarter)

     

    Note: 100,00,000 = 100 lakh = 10 million = 1 crore

     

    Airtel’s DTH segment reported 12.9 per cent growth in its revenue for the current quarter at Rs 706.8 crore as compared to the Rs 623.6 crore in Q2-2015. EBIDTA increased 53.2 per cent to Rs 234.3 crore (33.1 per cent margin) as compared to the Rs 152.9 crore (24.4 per cent margin)

     

    The company reported a 10.9 per cent YoY growth in its subscriber base to 105.76 lakh in Q2-2016 as compared to the 95.40 lakh in the corresponding year ago quarter and a 1.6 per cent QoQ growth from 104.12 crore in the immediate trailing quarter. Monthly subscriber churn however increased to 1.3 per cent in the current quarter as compared to 1.1 per cent in Q2-2015 and 0.8 per cent in Q1-2016.

     

    The company reported a slight increase in Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) in Q2-2016 in terms of Indian rupees, but a flat ARPU in terms of the US dollar at $3.5, which means that ARPU in dollar terms declined due to the rise in the price of the dollar in Indian Rupees. ARPU in Q2-2016 increased to Rs 224 as compared to the Rs 220 in Q2-2015 and the Rs 222 in Q1-2016.

     

    Airtel MD and CEO India & South Asia Gopal Vittal said, “Airtel’s revenue growth in India has accelerated to 13.3 per cent in Q2 on an underlying basis, the highest in the last 12 quarters. Our smaller businesses – home broadband, DTH and our business segment all continue to perform strongly. Mobile data revenue has grown by 60 per cent. With the commercial launch of high speed 4G services across 334 towns and roll-out of 3G services in our gap circles, we are now best positioned in the industry to leverage the fast growing data market. On the regulatory front, we welcome the guidelines issued by DOT on spectrum sharing and trading.”

     

    Airtel’s consolidated revenues for Q2-2016 at Rs 23,836 crore grew by 6.6 per cent (4.3 per cent reported Y-o-Y) on an underlying basis, adjusted for India termination rates reduction and Africa tower assets divestment over the corresponding quarter last year. Consolidated mobile data revenues at Rs 3,806 crore grew by 49.8 per cent YoY, uplifted by data traffic growth of 76.3 per cent.

     

    The company says that adjusted for the impact in reduction of termination rates, India revenues growth accelerated to 13.3 per cent YoY (10.3 per cent reported Y-o-Y). On an underlying basis, mobile revenues grew by 12.3 per cent, Airtel business (B2B) by 19 per cent and Digital TV by 22.6 per cent YoY. Mobile data revenue at Rs 2,893 crore registered a growth of 60.3 per cent YoY in India, led by increase in the data customer base by 27.2 per cent and traffic by 69.9 per cent. Data ARPU has moved up by Rs 42 (YoY) to Rs 193 in Q2-2016, led by 35.9 per cent increase in data usage per customer. Mobile Data revenues contribute to 21.5 per cent of Mobile India revenues vis-?-vis 14.5 per cent in the corresponding quarter last year.

     

    According to the company, consolidated EBITDA at Rs 8,265 crore grew by 6.7 per cent YoY with EBITDA margin expanding by 0.8 per cent to 34.7 per cent, driven by India’s margin expansion by 1.6 per cent Y-o-Y. The resultant consolidated EBIT of Rs 4,011 crore represents a YoY growth of 4.1 per cent, impacted by higher spectrum amortisation expense in India post recent auctions.

  • Airtel goes full throttle with 4G across 296 cities

    Airtel goes full throttle with 4G across 296 cities

    MUMBAI: Bharti Airtel is gung ho on its 4G service – LTE, which has now been launched across 296 Indian cities, followed by successful trials in select cities.

     

    With the new services, Airtel customers across the country will be able to experience high speed wireless broadband along with uninterrupted HD video streaming, super fast uploading and downloading of movies, music and images. 


    Airtel 4G is available to customers across a range of smart devices including mobile phones, dongles, 4G hotspots and Wi-Fi dongles.

    Bharti Airtel MD and CEO Gopal Vittal said, “With the help of the feedback received from the beta launches, we have now built India’s first commercial 4G network that will make high speed mobile broadband a reality. The national roll-out today is another small step in our journey to be the most innovative and customer focused brand.”


    He further mentioned that the new platform is critical to developing an ecosystem that nurtures innovation and enabling access a myriad set of possibilities on their mobile phones. “Our 4G network is built on an open partner ecosystem model that brings together the best in the industry and introduces the market to these never before experiences. Together with our network and device partners, we have enabled a deeper proliferation of 4G in the country and I take this opportunity to thank them for working with us to introduce India to the amazing 4G experience,” said Vittal.

    As part of the 4G services, Airtel has also introduced ‘Infinity Plans’ that will offer unlimited voice calls on mobile, along with bundled movies and music for the first time in India. 


    Continuing its streak of firsts, Flexpage, an automated platform that allows customers to track their data usage and get real time usage alerts, has also been introduced by the company. 


    Along with a range of strategic initiatives as part of its 4G roll out, Airtel also launched a new carrier agnostic mobile app – ‘Wynk Movies’ – a first of its kind movie mall that will offer a specially curated library of thousands of movies and other popular videos. This follows the recent launch of Wynk Music.

  • Q1-2016: Affirmation that DTH in India has turned the corner?

    Q1-2016: Affirmation that DTH in India has turned the corner?

    BENGALURU: If numbers reported by direct-to-home (DTH) operators in Q1-2016 are anything to go by, then the segment might just have turned the corner last quarter.

     

    As may be recalled, Indiantelevision.com had reported in the last quarter that the DTH industry in India had probably reached an inflection point in FY-2015 (financial year ended 31 March, 2015, previous year), and more so during the last quarter of the previous year (Q4-2015). The financial results for the quarter ended 30 June, 2015 (Q1-2016, current quarter) seem to confirm this fact.

     

    Another endorsement of this website’s surmise is a single statement in the Sun TV Network’s earning release for the current quarter – Subscription revenues continue to grow with cable TV revenues growing by approximately 13 per cent and DTH subscription revenue growing by nine per cent over the same quarter of last year. Sun TV had approximately eight per cent market share among the private Indian DTH players as on 31 March, 2015.

     

    Note: 100,00,000 = 100 lakh = 10 million = 1 crore.

     

    This report covers only the three of the seven DTH service providers in India (as had the previous one) since the other four – Reliance Digital TV, Sun Direct (about 97 lakh subscribers as on 31 March, 2015), Tata Sky and DD Free Dish are not listed on the bourses and their financial numbers are not available, unless the principals of these companies/segments chose to reveal them. The three players – Airtel DTH, Dish TV and Videocon d2h have already been covered in our earlier report mentioned above.

     

    Despite Q1 being a relatively weak quarter seasonally, two of the three players – Airtel DTH, Dish TV and Videocon d2h have reported QoQ and YoY growth across all the important parameters that include revenue, operating profits with healthy margins, subscription numbers, average revenue per user (ARPU) for the current quarter. The third player Videocon d2h, has also shown improved numbers across all the parameters mentioned above, except in the case of operating profits – the company’s YoY and QoQ loss reduced significantly in Q1-2016.

     

    Dish TV is the largest DTH player in terms of subscriber base and probably revenue too, in India. The company posted a 55.2 per cent QoQ growth in consolidated profit after tax of Rs 54.21 crore (7.2 per cent margin) in Q1-2016 on revenue of Rs 736.68 crore. For the corresponding quarter of last year, Dish TV had reported a loss of Rs 14.97 crore on revenue of Rs 618.04 crore.

     

    As a matter of fact, Dish TV is also the first among listed DTH companies in the country in FY-2015 and Q4-2015 to report a profit after tax as opposed to the operating profits reported by a segment of the other goliaths for whom DTH services is just another small segment.

     

    Airtel DTH reported the highest YoY growth in ARPU in Q1-2016, as well as the highest ARPU among the three players in this report.

     

    Let us look at some of the numbers reported by the three players:

     

    Airtel DTH

     

    For Bharati Airtel Limited (Airtel), Digital TV services (Airtel DTH) contributes just a small fraction to its overall numbers. The DTH segment’s contribution to overall Airtel numbers is approximately four per cent to revenue and three per cent to EBIDTA, and yet it had a seven per cent share in the company’s capex investments pie to the extent of Rs 211.3 crore fresh investments in Q1-2016. Overall, cumulative investment made by Airtel into its DTH segment is Rs 5621.6 crore (about three per cent of Airtel’s overall cumulative investments).

     

    Mentioning the DTH segment in Airtel’s Q1-2016 earning release, Airtel MD and CEO, India & South Asia Gopal Vittal said, “I am pleased that our revenue growth is broad based across all business units, especially the domestic enterprise and corporate segment, which saw revenues grow by 18.1 per cent, and DTH business which had a underlying topline growth of 26.8 per cent.”

     

    Airtel DTH reported 15.8 per cent increase in YoY revenue to Rs 684.8 crore in Q1-2016 as compared to the Rs 591.5 crore in Q1-2015 and 7.9 per cent more than the Rs 634.8 crore in Q4-2015.

     

    The telecom major’s DTH segment reported a 67 per cent growth in operating profit (EBIDTA) in the current quarter at Rs 240.8 crore (46.1 per cent margin) as compared to the Rs 143.8 crore (24.3 per cent margin) in Q1-2015 and 15.9 per cent more than the Rs 207.8 crore (32.7 per cent margin) immediate trailing quarter.

     

    Airtel’s DTH segment reported 10.9 per cent YoY growth in Airtel DTH customer base for the current quarter at 104.12 lakh as compared to the 93.88 lakh in Q1-2015 and 3.4 per cent growth as compared to the 100.73 lakh in Q4-2015.

     

    As mentioned above, ARPU in Q1-2016 improved significantly to Rs 222 as compared to the Rs 214 in both Q1-2015 and Q4-2015. Monthly churn in the current quarter was higher at 0.8 per cent as compared to the 0.6 per cent in the corresponding year ago quarter, but lower than the one per cent in the immediate trailing quarter.

     

    Dish TV

     

    Dish TV has shown almost flat QoQ revenue growth in Q1-2016. The company reported 0.9 per cent higher consolidated net total Income from Operations (TIO) in the current quarter at Rs 736.68 crore as compared to the Rs 729.93 crore in the immediate trailing quarter and 19.2 per cent more than the Rs 618.04 crore in Q1-2015.

     

    As mentioned above, the company has reported 55.2 per cent higher PAT at Rs 54.21 (7.4 per cent margin) as compared to the Rs 34.94 crore (margin 4.8 per cent) in Q4-2015. The company had reported a loss of Rs 14.97 crore in Q1-2015, while it had reported a consolidated PAT of Rs 3.14 crore for FY-2015.

     

    With effect from 1 April, 2015, Dish TV says that it has started netting-off certain collection fees paid to its trade partners from its topline. This has resulted in the company’s topline getting shrunk by around four per cent, with a similar number being decreased from the middle line.

     

    Further, Dish TV transferred its non-core business (including set-top boxes, dish antenna and related services) to its wholly owned subsidiary Dish Infra Services Private Limited (formerly known as Xingmedia Distribution Private Limited) on 1 April, 2015 on a going concern basis.

     

    The company reported addition of 3,90,000 net subscribers in Q1-2016, taking its total subscriber base to 1.33 crore as on 30 June, 2015. Post consolidation, Dish TV’s ARPU was Rs 173 versus Rs 172 (QoQ) in Q4-2015. The company reported consolidated subscription revenues at Rs 628.88 crore, up 20.6 per cent YoY.

     

    Dish TV chairman Subhash Chandra said, “Dish TV has been actively contributing to the ‘Digital India’ movement by digitizing analog TV homes in DAS phase 3 and 4 markets and remains optimistic about its prospects to acquire a substantial share in these markets.”

     

    Dish TV managing director Jawahar Goel added, “Our first quarter results are in line with the success of our regional and high definition (HD) strategy. Our regional offering, ‘Zing’, would soon be launched in Kerala and would carry the largest cache of vernacular channels offered in that market. ‘Zing’ cemented Dish TV’s supremacy in the DAS Phase 3 and 4 markets with custom-made content, hardware and service packages for the regional audience. High definition continues to be a value driver and a key differentiator for us compared to other DTH offerings in India. Dish TV’s industry leading bandwidth capacity supports 42 HD channels, the largest on offer by any distribution platform so far.”

     

    Further, Dish TV recently formed a content negotiating joint venture (JV) called Comnet with its group company and multi system operator (MSO) Siti Cable Network Limited. Both Dish TV and Siti Cable are equal partners in the JV that came into existence on 1 July, 2015. As part of the JV, both companies will hold joint discussions with broadcasters post, which separate direct contracts between the broadcaster and distribution platform will be signed. The JV also tends to bring together the industry on contentious taxation issues like the recent arbitrary hike in entertainment tax in Delhi.

     

    Videocon d2h

     

    For Videocon d2h, the addition of 6.1 lakh gross subscribers and 4.6 lakh net subscribers in Q1-2016 coupled with higher ARPU for Q1-2016, resulted in a YoY 32.1 per cent growth in subscription revenue and 23.3 per cent growth in revenue from operations (TIO) in Q1-2016. On a QoQ basis, subscription revenue increased 3.7 per cent, while TIO increased six per cent. The company also reported a marked fall in finance costs and consequently the company’s loss in the current quarter more than halved to Rs 24.4 crore as compared to the Rs 55.8 crore in Q1-2015 and was less than a third of the Rs 75.7 crore in Q4-015.

     

    TIO in Q1-2016 at Rs 662.83 crore was 23.3 per cent more than the Rs 537.65 crore in Q1-2015 and 6 per cent more than the Rs 625.27 crore in Q4-2015.

     

    Videocon achieved strong subscription revenue growth of 32.1 per cent to Rs 599.61 crore (90.5 per cent of TIO) in Q1-2016 as compared to the Rs 453.77 crore (84.4 per cent of TIO) in Q1-2015 and growth of 3.7 per cent as compared to the Rs 578.33 crore (92.5 per cent of TIO) in the immediate trailing quarter Q4-2015.

     

    Average revenue per user (ARPU) in Q1-2016 at Rs 205.30 was 9.7 per cent more than the Rs 187.14 in the corresponding year ago quarter and was 1.5 per cent more than the Rs 202.17 in Q4-2015. (Conversion rate from 1 dollar = 62.59 Indian rupee for all the three quarters).

     

    The company considers advertisement revenue as an important contributor to its numbers, and is beginning to see an encouraging response from multiple advertisers. Videocon d2h recently set up an advertising team to sell ad inventory on its own proprietary channels and added three proprietary channels – d2h nursery rhymes; d2h Cinema HD; and another music channel. The company has also launched three Active services, namely, Active Kids, Active Games and Active Learning in this quarter, which the company says are beginning to get traction from its customer.

     

    Videocon d2h executive chairman Saurabh Dhoot said, “We are pleased to declare a strong set of results for the quarter ended 30 June, 2015 and are on track to achieve the guidance provided for fiscal 2016. With a strong subscriber growth outlook, DTH sector gaining market share over cable and an improving ARPU scenario; we believe we are just at the beginning of a multi-year strong growth opportunity.”

     

    Conclusion

     

    The three players considered in this report had an approximate combined market share of 67 per cent in among the private players India at the end of the previous year, or more than two-thirds. It is still early days as yet to really conclude that the DTH sector in India has turned the corner based on good results for only two consecutive quarters reported by three companies that represent about two thirds of the sector. Of course, the amount of representation goes up to 75 per cent of the private players, if one were to consider the Sun TV market share of eight per cent. However, looking at the intensity and the moves of these players, it is quite likely that the sector should continue showing improved positive results, and may have turned the corner in Q4-2015.

  • Q1-2016: Airtel DTH revenue up 15.8% at Rs 684.8 crore

    Q1-2016: Airtel DTH revenue up 15.8% at Rs 684.8 crore

    BENGALURU:  Bharati Airtel Limited’s Digital TV services – Airtel DTH reported 15.8 per cent increase in y-o-y revenue to Rs 684.8 crore in the quarter ended 30 June, 2015 (Q1-2016) as compared to the Rs 591.5 crore in Q1-2015 and 7.9 per cent more than the Rs 634.8 crore in Q4-2015.

     

    The telecom major’s DTH segment reported a 67 per cent growth in operating profit (EBIDTA) in the current quarter at Rs 240.8 crore (46.1 per cent margin) as compared to the Rs 143.8 crore (24.3 per cent margin) in Q1-2015 and 15.9 per cent more than the Rs 207.8 crore (32.7 per cent margin) immediate trailing quarter.

     

    Note: 100,00,000 = 100 lakh = 10 million = 1 crore

     

    The Airtel DTH segment customer base reported 10.9 per cent y-o-y growth for the current quarter at 104.12 lakh as compared to the 93.88 lakh in Q1-2015 and 3.4 per cent growth as compared to the 100.73 lakh in Q4-2015. Average revenue per user (ARPU) in Q1-2016 improved to Rs 222 as compared to the Rs 214 in both Q1-2015 and Q4-2015. Monthly churn in the current quarter was higher at 0.8 per cent as compared to the 0.6 per cent in the corresponding year ago quarter, but lower than the one per cent in the immediate trailing quarter.

     

    Airtel MD and CEO, India & South Asia Gopal Vittal said, “The year has begun on a healthy note, with underlying revenue growth accelerating to 12.7 per cent in India. Our customer base has continued to steadily expand. Mobile minutes and data traffic have grown by 7.4 per cent and 83.4 per cent respectively. I am pleased that our revenue growth is broad based across all business units, especially the domestic enterprise and corporate segment, which saw revenues grow by 18.1 per cent, and DTH business, which had an underlying topline growth of 26.8 per cent. Our capex programme is mostly directed at increasing 3G / 4G coverage and improving all-round customer experience.”

     

    Overall, Airtel says that consolidated revenues for Q1-2016 at Rs 23,671 crore grew by 3.1 per cent over the corresponding quarter last year. Consolidated Mobile data revenues at Rs 3,459 crore, grew by 56.9 per cent y-o-y, uplifted by data traffic growth of 86.5 per cent. India revenues reported a growth of 10 per cent y-o-y, led by 22.2 per cent in Airtel business (B2B) and 15.8 per cent in Digital TV.

     

    Adjusted for the impact in reduction of termination rates, India revenues grew on an underlying basis by 12.7 per cent and Mobile revenues by 12.2 per cent y-o-y. Mobile Data revenue at Rs 2,609 crore registered a growth of 67.3 per cent y-o-y in India, uplifted by increase in the Data customer base by 25.8 per cent and traffic by 83.4 per cent. Data ARPU has moved up by Rs 42 to Rs 181 in Q1-2016, led by 42.7 per cent increase in data usage per customer. Mobile Data revenues contribute to 19.2 per cent of Mobile India revenues vis-?-vis 12.4 per cent in the corresponding quarter last year.

     

    Consolidated EBITDA in Q1-2016 at Rs 8262 crore grew by 6.4 per cent y-o-y with EBITDA margin expanding by 1.1 per cent to 34.9 per cent, driven by India’s margin expansion by 2.1 per cent y-o-y. Net Profit after tax (PAT) increased 40.2 per cent to Rs 1554.3 crore (6.6 per cent margin) in Q1-2016 as compared to the Rs 1108.5 crore (4.8 per cent margin) and was 23.8 per cent more than the Rs 1255.3 crore (5.4 per cent margin) in Q4-2015.

  • Airtel Money appoints Manish Khera as CEO

    Airtel Money appoints Manish Khera as CEO

    MUMBAI: YTS Solutions co-founder and MD Manish Khera has been roped in as Airtel Money CEO. Khera will be a part of the Airtel Management Board and report to Bharti Airtel (India & South Asia) MD & CEO Gopal Vittal.

     

    Vittal said, “I am delighted to announce that Manish Khera will join AMSL as chief executive officer. A trend-setter in the domain areas of financial inclusion, payments & banking, Manish combines the spirit of entrepreneurship with a passion for technology and commitment to serve millions. I am confident that his rich domain expertise will add immense value to our plans and help lead our mobile commerce and payments business to reach millions of underserved Indians.”

     

    Khera added, “I was fortunate to go through the retail banking explosion in the early part of my career, and then to drive a host of financial inclusion initiatives in the country under the guidance of banking stalwarts. I am now excited at the opportunity of working with India’s largest telecom company and leading its vision of delivering a transformed m-Commerce experience for million across the country.”