Gopal Vittal blames tariff regime for DTH woes

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), according to Bharti Airtel MD and CEO Gopal Vittal, has dragged the direct-to-home (DTH) industry to its knees by "excessive regulation." Vittal was referring to the TRAI's New Tariff Order (NTO), which he said did not benefit any stakeholders.

Vittal during the company's Q4 FY22 earnings conference call said, "The DTH business continued to see headwinds. While the category continues to see a significant long-term opportunity for upgradation from cable, it’s also a classic case of an industry that has been brought to its knees, due to excessive regulation."

He went on to describe how the NTO has added to the complexity for the pay-TV business, which was previously under forbearance in terms of pricing. "TRAI's new tariff order a few years ago dictated every microscopic facet of pricing in a sector that had previously been governed quite easily through forbearance. With no value to any stakeholder, this produced a mind-boggling level of complication for DTH companies and, more critically, for customers," he said.

The TRAI legislation is biassed, according to Vittal, because the pricing of the same material is controlled on traditional platforms but not on over-the-top (OTT) platforms. He also mentioned that broadcasters make certain premium material available through their free-to-air (FTA) services.

Due to a falling subscriber base, Bharti Airtel's direct to home (DTH) sector had slower revenue growth in FY22. Bharti Airtel's DTH brand, Airtel Digital TV, had a 3% increase in income in FY22, to Rs 3153.8 crore, up from Rs 3056.2 crore in FY21.

In FY22, the company's customer base fell 0.9 percent to 17.56 million from 17.72 million in FY21. The average revenue per user (APRU) fell 1.5 percent to Rs 142 in the current fiscal year from Rs 144 the previous year. In March 2022, the monthly churn rate was 2.1 percent, down from 2.2 percent in March 2021.