DTH provider, Dish TV has said that courtesy of the new Trai tariff order, the content charges are expected to come down by as much as 20% for the company. The provider has also said that since the new Trai order has taken aback the MSOs (Multi System Operators) by a shock, the DTH platforms will benefit as they will get more subscribers. There is likely a hint of truth in this prediction, as a lot of MSOs have been unprepared for the implementation of the new tariff order, the result being that the subscribers have been facing many problems and are ready to switch to another DTH provider, given that the service is satisfactory.
New Tariff Regime Good for Dish TV in the Longer Run
In the Q3 earnings conference, Jawahar Goel, Chairman and MD of Dish TV said that the company could not discuss the new payouts to the broadcasters as it will start happening next month. Further, the CMD said that the company expects reduced content cost by around 20% owing to the introduction of the new tariff regime. In his statement about the same, Jawahar Goel said, “Currently, our pay channel cost is 35-38%. In the case of D2h, it is roughly around 40%. If we are paying Rs 2300 crore, we are expecting content cost on a net basis will be around Rs 1800 crore.”
It is also worth noting that Dish TV was one of the earliest adopters of the new Trai tariff regime, however, even after quick adoption of the new pricing scheme, the platform failed to leverage it to its advantage in the form of subscriber addition. When asked about this by Television Post, Dish TV India Group CEO, Anil Dua said that this was a short term trend and that the new tariff order is right in the long term.
The Unpreparedness of MSOs to Help DTH Platform Gain Additional Subscribers
Dish TV, CMD, Goel also said that as the customer grow reluctant of spending more on their cable or DTH subscription, small broadcasters who do not offer worthy content will be pushed out of the market. He further added, “You must have seen there are around 15-20 Hindi movie channels. They are surviving on connectivity as well as the capacity to buy content compared to lower established players. I think they will go out from the market. So, I think movie buying rights will get reset.”
Overall, Goel expressed that the sentiment towards the new Trai tariff regime is positive for Dish TV as the order will reap benefits in the longer term. He again mentioned that the unpreparedness of the MSOs would work in favour of DTH operators gaining more subscribers. He also said that since DEN and Hathway are also prepping themselves for the adoption of the new Trai order, it will take Jio another two or three months to enter the market. Until now, Jio has not made any considerable dent in the market, he added. However, as per the CMD, Dish TV is not happy about the revenue share with the broadcasters. Speaking about the same, he said, “We are not happy with this 20% margin that is being given by the broadcaster. So, we are negotiating with them, talking to them. These things will start happening after the broadcaster gets a first or second weekly report of their channel viewership. Thereafter the new discussion will start happening.”
