In the last five years, the widespread of high-speed broadband access has led to a decline in the business for DTH (Direct-to-Home) operators. New and more affordable OTT (over-the-top) platforms have arrived and they are taking away the paying users from the DTH industry. Now, according to a recently published report from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the paying DTH subscriber base in India has continued to shrink in the December 2025 quarter. The total paying subscriber base has declined by 12.4% YoY to 50.99 million during the quarter.
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Tata Play continues to lead with over 31.08% market share followed by Bharti Telemedia with a market share of 28.53%. Then there's Sun Direct and Dish TV with a market share of 21.17% and 19.22%, respectively.
The DTH paying subscriber base is expected to continue declining at a fast rate as more people get access to smartphones with high-speed broadband. Even for TVs, people are now preferring just subscribing to OTT platforms for watching live sports or their favourite TV shows and movies. This means that the DTH players will have to find a new way to attract new customers and retain the existing ones.
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IPTV (Internet Protocol TV) services are now offered by players like Bharti Airtel with their broadband services. When it came to IPTV subscriber base, Airtel had the largest active base with 2.54 million subscribers. In this segment, Reliance Jio is also aiming to grow with its widely distributed fiber and airfiber broadband business.
The loss of paying subscribers would ultimately result in the DTH companies losing out on the advertisement revenues. The brands would rather shift to OTT platforms and social media platforms such as Instagram and YouTube for spending money on advertisements to attract new customers.
