Reliance Jio Likely to Change the Indian DTH Industry Scene With the Launch of GigaTV and GigaFiber

Mukesh Ambani led telecom operator, Reliance Jio has been credited with much of what has happened in the last two years in the telecom industry. The telecom operator had brought the data tariff war to the Indian telecom turf and has competed with the likes of Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and started a wave of consolidation too. On the back of all this, Reliance Jio has witnessed a lot of success and now boasts of more than 300 million subscribers. But, now the telco is planning to repeat this success in the DTH and broadband segment with the launch of Reliance Jio GigaTV and GigaFiber respectively. The obvious question in the minds of the people now is that whether or not Reliance Jio will be able to shake up these industries as it has done in the case of mobile data. Read ahead to find out.

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The beginning of Consolidation in the DTH Industry

There are no two thoughts about the fact that the broadband industry is already preparing for the coming of Reliance Jio FTTH service. BSNL and Airtel have already debuted their revised plans which offer more to the users. The government led telecom operator has also removed FUP limit on many of its plans which means that it is trying to attract more and more consumers to stick. Similar is the case for many other providers in the industry.

As per the consumers and experts noting the industry trends, there is a chance that the DTH industry might suffer a similar fate in the hands of Reliance Jio GigaFiber. There is already a very nascent wave of consolidation ongoing in the DTH industry with Airtel Digital TV, the DTH wing of Bharti Airtel looking to acquire Dish TV, a significant DTH player along with Singtel. The Singapore based telecom giant will buy a 60% stake in Dish TV along with Airtel. Tata Sky is also on the lookout of investors lately as Temasek and Tata Opportunities Fund which together own 19% stake in the company are also looking for a way out. For Airtel Digital TV, having a consolidated large market share when the GigaFiber arrives will be an upper hand, while for Tata Sky the investment would mean more capex opportunities. Right now, it’s said that Jio’s TV service will be called as Jio HomeTV and the telco will bundle broadband, TV and home security billing into a single one. It’s recently said that the ISP will bundle broadband, landline and Home TV services at Rs 600 per month.