The outbreak of COVID-19 and lockdown by the government has affected the TV and DTH services drastically. Since Coronavirus made its space, TV and DTH subscribers have lost interest in television content. From the past three months, TV and DTH subscribers have not enjoyed any new content. Due to this, nearly 4.5 million to 5 million subscribers have disconnected their cable and DTH services. Also, various subscribers have downgraded their subscription packages. Since the subscription packages have been downgraded companies are not getting revenue income. However, it is expected that TV and DTH consumers will be back in the ecosystem once the economy opens fully.
Migrants Returning to Home is One of the Factors for Revenue Loss
Gurjeev Singh Kapoor, who is the Star and Disney India distribution and international business president and head, shared the data along with the two primary reasons for the loss of subscribers. One of the reasons was the commercial establishments cutting the cords. Another reason which Gurjeev Kapoor stated was the migrants who are returning to home. He also agreed that the downgrade in subscription packages was one of the primary reasons for the revenue loss of the companies. However, he was also confident about the growth of the sector and stated that the lost subscribers would be back in the ecosystem once the economy is fully opened.
Average Viewing Time of Individual Was 27 Hours
Television became a good mode of entertainment, especially because of the old movies and news which catered to the entertainment and informative need of subscribers. Gurjeev Singh Kapoor revealed that during the lockdown period, the existing viewers contributed 1.2 trillion minutes in a week which was the number during April and May. Also, in the month of January and February, the viewership was 0.9 trillion minutes. Apart from this, the average time of individual spending on TV before the lockdown was 20 hours which increased to 27 hours after lockdown.
Amit Arora, president of IndiaCast Media Distribution Ltd has stated that the customers are going to be very stingy. The platforms and broadcasters will have to partner more to get past the entire crisis and compete with OTT platforms who have seen a surge in users mainly because of a wide variety of content and free premium packs.
