Year 2025 : Road Map for DTH/ CableTV/ Connected TV/ DD Free Dish in India Trend : As the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's ( TRAI's ) report for Indian Telecom Services Performance Indicators for July24 -Sept 24 is published, the worst fears of the DTH ( and Cable TV players) are coming true. There is a fear that the actual figure is far more damaging than this reported figure of 59.9 million of Indian DTH base ( by the end of Sept 24)as this includes the subscribers who have been inactive or temporarily suspended for not more than 90 days . This figure was 64.18 million a year ago in Sept 23 Secondly if the current churn trend of the Industry is factored in for the quarter Oct 24-Dec 24 as well, then the 2025 opening figures will be less than even approx 57 million active base for DTH . Similar will be a trend for Cable TV ( which might be going downward to around 50 million-52 million by year end ) Connected TV: expected to touch 50 million DD FreeDish : Expected to touch 50 million Future Outlook : It's time the Industry( DTH+ Cable) puts their collaborative thinking Hats on and rather than focusing on poaching each other's stbs ...they focus on some Innovative constructive Out Of the Box Thinking for a huge opportunity still up for grabs : # With rapid electrification of rural areas, deep penetration of Digital for online payments , rising affluence amongst people , more proliferation of 5G network..... fresh ideation needed for # upconverting DD FreeDish universe ( estimated to be touching approx 50 million) # target 100 million plus 'TV Dark' homes . Put together a humongous 150 million + market. DTH / Cable TV Industry players can look to explore : 1) Pooling in resources by making a Special Purpose Vehicle to have a focused approach to tap the huge above mentioned 150 million plus market of Free Dish + 'TV Dark' households 2) Rather than spending huge amounts of money in buying fresh stbs and using it for free swapping of each other's existing stbs, divert these funds to onboard part of this 150 million plus opportunity. 3) Explore Public-Private model in subsidizing hardware ( TV plus stbs/ TV with inbuilt receivers) for addressing the TV Dark market . 4) Try synergising with Prasar Bharti when it plans the conversion of the entire mammoth base to an Addressable one ( if recommendation of TRAI are to be accepted ). 5) Offer stbs at one time cost ( with some margin to LCO ) with inbuilt FTA content for rural mkts with no recurring subscription 6) Customised exclusive content for urban up-market subscribers 7) Collaborate with broadcasters for small cost effective regional pay packs esp to lure DD Freedish universe / rural base. Just a food for thought to get things going before it's too late.
1st innovation is required, FTA boxes don't have consumer id like DTH or Cable STB. 2nd BARC is given too much importance, because of Big 1 dominance among Big 3, hence content is also compromised in a big way. 3rd Internet based TV is out of the BARC system here, too much importance given to BARC and no of households monitored in the total universe. 4th Cable Operators and DTH must be given Free hand to generate their own revenue through cable scroll, astons and consumer interactions for the brands 5th Content on Demand will be the future, Cable operators use to run Dial in feature to watch consumer favorite songs and movies which should come back to the TV channels to increase the demand 6th Brand engagement is missing, TV is one way medium, both TV channels and Brands don't use any other medium to make it 2 way communication. Top management does what they want to do in their own interest, no risk taking happens.
Very nice Sunil Punj - requesting my colleague Pooja Shrivastava to share her comments on the CTV bit and other data points - where possible
Pleasure to see you here brother!
Insightful
Very informative
Very good insights and yes it is high time to act or perish for DTH and Cable TV.
Very informative
Useful tips Sir,
Useful tips
Head‐ Public and Regulatory Affairs, ZEE
1wInteresting