DTH subscriber base down by 2.2 m in Sept 2024: TRAI

India's pay DTH sector has witnessed a decline in its active subscriber base, dropping from 62.17 million in June 2024 to 59.91 million by September 2024, says a recent report released by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

This figure is exclusive of subscribers using DD Free Dish, the free DTH service provided by Doordarshan. The shift highlights changing trends in India's television consumption landscape.

“Pay DTH has attained a total active subscriber base of around 59.91 million. This is in addition to the subscribers of the DD Free Dish (free DTH services of Doordarshan). The total active subscriber base has decreased from 62.17 million in June, 2024 to 59.91 million in September 2024,” said TRAI’s Telecom Services Performance Indicator Report.

According to the report, the total pay DTH subscriber base stood at 64.18 million in the corresponding quarter ending September 2023. It has been consistently declining every quarter from there on. However, it saw a minor jump from the quarter ending March 2024 to June 2024 by two lakh subscribers.

Currently, there are four paid DTH providers in the country – Dish TV, Tata Play, Bharti Telemedia and Sun Direct. DD Free Dish is Prasar Bharati’s free DTH service.
Thee market share, as per TRAI, is 31.99% for Tata Play, 29.38 % for Bharti Telemedia, 19.53% for Dish TV and 19.10% for Sun Direct.

According to the report, a total of approximately 912 private satellite TV channels have been permitted by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) for uplinking only/downlinking only/both uplinking & downlinking.

“As per the reporting done by broadcasters in pursuance of the Tariff Order dated 3rd March 2017, as amended, out of 902 permitted satellite TV channels which are available for downlinking in India, there are 362 satellite pay TV channels as on 30th September, 2024. Out of 362 pay channels, 258 are SD satellite pay TV channels and 104 are HD satellite pay TV channels,” the report noted, adding that there were 540 FTA channels.

Among the 362 satellite pay TV channels, 205 belong to the top five broadcasters – Star India (64 channels), Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (49), Viacom 18 Media Private Limited (39), SUN TV Network Limited (31) and Culver Max Entertainment Private Limited (22).

It also noted that the total number of Multi System Operators (MSOs), who have been granted Permanent Registration (for 10 years) by the I&B Ministry for providing cable TV services through Digital Addressable Systems (DAS) declined from 880 in June 2024 to 845 in September 2024.

Among the MSOs, GTPL Hathway ranked top with 89.74 lakh subscribers as on September 2024, followed by Hathway Digital with 51.74 lakh subscribers and Siti Networks with 48.10 lakh subscriber base.