The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) recently released - “The Indian Telecom Services Performance Indicators” report for July - September 2021. In the report, the regulator also shared the performance data of the DTH and Cable TV sector. According to the data shared by TRAI, Bharti Telemedia and Sun Direct saw an increase in the Direct-to-Home (DTH) market share. Bharti Telemedia and Sun Direct had 26.11% and 17.91% DTH market share at the end of September 2021 as compared to 25.76% and 17.41% at the end of June 2021, respectively. At the same time, Tata Sky and Dish TV’s market share declined. From 33.37% market share at the end of June 2021, Tata Sky’s market share fell to 33.34%. Dish TV saw its market share declining from 23.45% at the end of June 2021 to 22.65% at the end of September 2021.
Total Pay DTH Subscriber Base in India Declined
In a continuing trend, the pay DTH subscribers in the country have reduced. The declining trend of pay DTH subscribers started from the December 2020 quarter and has been continuing since. According to the TRAI data, as of September 30, 2021, there were 68.89 million total pay DTH subscribers in the country. Compared to this, there were 69.86 million total pay DTH subscribers in India at the end of June 2021. The continuous decline in pay DTH subscribers can be attributed to the rise in over-the-top (OTT) content consumption in the country. The figures might keep declining as more and more subscribers switch to OTT platforms for watching their favourite content. DTH operators need to find a way to counter the loss that OTT platforms threaten. With the NTO 2.0, the cost of TV bills would increase even further, which would again push the customers to opt for OTT platforms. In the cable TV sector, GTPL Hathway Ltd took the lead with 7.79 million customers which is slightly more than that of Siti Networks 7.64 million customers figure.
