DD Free Dish, Smart TV to Restrict Cable, DTH Growth in India: Analyst

Prabhudas Lilladher, a research based financial services organization in a report said that the pay TV services including cable TV and Direct-to-Home (DTH) will deliver “low single digits” growth in India. The firm in a report on Tuesday said that the “uptick in DD Free Dish” along with the “higher growth in connected TVs” will restrict the growth of pay TV homes across India. Prabhudas Lilladher highlighted that the pay TV homes, since 2012, have been on the rise across the country except for the services registering a dip in 2019.

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DD Free Dish Registers Increase in Subscriber Base

In 2019, the firm said that the pay TV services registered lower growth as compared to the previous years due to multiple reasons including the English language viewers shifting to Over-the-Top (OTT) platforms. Prabhudas Lilladher said that the “strong content pie” on the OTT platforms enabled the English language viewers to make the shift from pay TV services. The firm also highlights that the DD Free Dish, the free DTH service from Prasar Bharati also registered an increase in its subscriber base in 2019, contributing to the restrictive growth of pay TV services.

Prabhudas Lilladher said that the DD Free Dish is now estimated to have a subscriber base of 35 million to 38 million with the platform now hosting 104 channels as of 2019.

“Post NTO 1.0, majority of the large broadcasters pulled out their FTA channels from Free Dish as TRAI mandated that FTA and pay channels cannot be part of the same bouquet,” Prabhudas Lilladher said in its report.

The firm highlighted that the broadcasters converted their free-to-air (FTA) channels into pay channels in the price range of Rs 0 to Rs 1 and included them in the bouquets. Prabhudas Lilladher said that the move resulted in the “significant fall” in the reach of these channels with their “ad-revenues plummeted.”