ITV

Tag: Jawaher 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 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.”