Dish TV sees 209,000 net subscriber additions in Q1 FY2010

Dish TV India Limited has reported consolidated subscription revenues of Rs 8,261 million and operating revenues of Rs 9,263 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2020. EBITDA for the quarter stood at Rs 5,360 million. The company achieved an EBITDA margin of 57.9 per cent under the New Tariff Regime. 

Dish TV stated that owing to the netting off of programming cost from revenues, to better reflect the New Tariff Regime, subscription and operating revenues for the quarter are not comparable with the corresponding period last year. 

With the television and distribution industry finding its feet, the New Regulatory Regime seems to have finally stabilised. For Dish TV, a lacklustre January and February 2019, followed by a turnaround in March had paved the way for a solid start to fiscal 2020. 

Building on the foundation set by the last month of the previous fiscal, the company continued to add subscribers through the first quarter. Net additions for the quarter stood at 209,000, closing with a net subscriber base of 23.9 million. 

In line with expectations, subscription revenues were strengthened due to an engrossing cricket season. The 2019 General Elections, too, had TV viewership going up significantly, which ultimately positively impacted the subscriber additions and revenues. 

Jawahar Goel, CMD, Dish TV India Limited, commented, “Positive contribution from the Cricket World Cup and the elections no doubt strengthened the first quarter performance, but due credit should also be given to the team for dexterously working through the challenges thrown by the New Tariff Regime. I am glad to say that the technological challenges experienced during the migration are now a thing of the past. Majority of our subscribers are well settled in their channel combinations and Dish TV India should continue to raise the bar both in terms of service delivery and financial performance in the coming quarters.” 

Fiscal 2020 is going to be the first full year of the Tariff Order implementation and should witness its positive impact as well. Dish TV India strongly believes that the New Regulatory Regime will enable large distribution players like itself to emerge stronger than ever before. 

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Speaking on that, Anil Dua, Group CEO, Dish TV India, said, “The Tariff Order has led to the beginning of a new era with programming cost becoming a pass-through expense. Apart from the accounting significance, the move indicates a massive shift from the traditional way of content negotiation. With the New Regime emphasising the role of ala-carte, content would be subject to subscriber’s filtration. As a distributor, we would only be procuring content that sells while adding value through our packaging, quality of our service and new products.” 

Macro Outlook and the Year Ahead 

The Government’s thrust on social spending and upliftment is expected to improve consumer sentiment, thus benefitting consumer sector companies like Dish TV India. 

At the same time, primary drivers of DTH like the ever increasing TV and multi-TV households and increasing urbanisation should continuously fuel sustainable growth in the DTH space. 

Moreover, potential tie-ups and innovations in the category are expected to reinforce DTH progression going forward. 

“Having jump-started the year, we find ourselves all set to leverage the possibility of multiple growth opportunities ahead. In the near term, operating efficiencies resulting from further realisation of synergies due to the combination of Dish TV and d2h should continue to positively contribute to the business and financial performance of the Company,” said Dua. 

Dish TV India sees Watcho, its in-house OTT app, continue to strengthen its presence in the OTT space, thus becoming an effective retention and value addition tool. The partnership between Watcho and Kaltura, a leading video technology provider, will enable seamless multi-screen presence for the app while enabling continuous learning on the content consumption habits of subscribers.

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