26 September 2005

DTH subscriber base may touch 72 lakh by 2010
Financial Express
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The next big growth in the media delivery business in India is expected from the direct to home (DTH) TV segment. According to a study by Hong Kong-based media research company, Media Partners Asia (MPA), the DTH subscription base in India is expected to touch 72 lakh if the "must carry" clause is enforced properly.

Currently, only two operators provide DTH option to subscribers - Zee Telefilms' Dish TV and Prasar Bharti's DD Direct. While DD-Direct is a free to air service which claims a subscriber base of over 3,00,000, Dish TV is aiming to close this fiscal with 9,00,000 subscribers.

"Dish TV is currently adding about 2,500 subscribers a day with customer subsidies up from Rs 750 to Rs 1,000 thereby ensuring that future competition will have to price competitively and subsidise heavily in order to achieve significant penetration or differentiation," the MPA report said. Looking to launch in 2006 are T Sky, the Rs 1,575 crore Star TV-Tata joint venture, along with Sun TV's Sun Media.

According to the industry sources, the expected growth in DTH business is a direct result of the fragmented pay TV distribution system. "DD-Direct, the DTH operations of Prasar Bharti is reaching out to those corner of the country where cable and satellite footprint hasn't reached till date. Private players will have to strike a balance between the affluent classes and masses in order to spread DTH operations in the country," sources said.

While T Sky and Dish TV struggle with implementation of must carry' clause which will give them access to each other's widely watched channels on cable, DD-Direct is looking to add up to 70 new free to air channels on its service in order to popularise its operations.