Why TV channel prices are rising and why broadcasters consider it essential

When broadcasters announced channel price hikes in February, it was not just another routine revision but a reflection of deeper structural pressures reshaping the television business.

While subscription revenues have shown a steady uptick, slowing advertising growth, a shrinking pay-TV base, and rising content and sports rights costs are forcing networks to rethink how they sustain profitability. 

This recalibration has been building for some time. Price revisions are not new to the industry, but the current cycle—led by JioStar, Sony Pictures Networks India and Zee Entertainment Enterprises—comes at a moment when multiple headwinds are converging, pushing broadcasters to reset how they monetise content.

Read On: Channel and bouquet prices up nearly 10% across networks

Kailash Adhikari, MD, Sri Adhikari Brothers (SAB), sees the shift as inevitable in a weakening ad market. “We all know that advertising market is going very soft. Be it FTA, be it pay, naturally they have now more revenues for advertising other than just satellite traditional broadcast. So for all the pay networks, in order to invest in content and to sustain the business, it is imperative for them to raise the prices. I don't think it will have a big impact on subscriber negatively, because now everyone is tuned to it and most of the DPOs are selling packs to the consumers, like to the end consumers. But for the sustainability of the business, this is necessary because at the end of the day, if the consumer is watching your content and the consumer needs to pay for it, somewhere our over reliance on advertising needs to end.”

That over-reliance on advertising, long the backbone of the television business, is now proving insufficient in the face of rising costs and changing consumption patterns.

Rajiv Khattar, a broadcast consultant, argues that the pressure is both cyclical and structural. “The broadcasters are under strain as the pay universe is shrinking, ad revenue is not going to be robust this year as the Middle East will have issues on economy, advertisers are also under pressure due to rising input costs which they are not able to pass on fully immediately.

“The broadcasters are trying to raise the prices to offset the pressure on revenue, though any price increase has a long-term impact as then for the future it becomes the new benchmark. The DPO are going to resist the same as the increase cannot be passed on today to consumer who will then migrate faster to online or free services, so broadcasters may have dual strategy—get an increase and also better penetration so that more eyeballs for ad revenues,” he said.

The tension Khattar points to—between the need to raise prices and the risk of accelerating consumer churn—runs through the current pricing cycle. Gains in pricing could easily be offset by faster cord-cutting if increases are not calibrated carefully.

Anil Solanki, Director at DentsuX, sees the hikes as a defensive but necessary response. “The 10% price increase is largely a margin-protection move driven by rising content costs and slower ad growth. While it will help broadcasters improve ARPU in the short term, there is a real risk of subscriber drop-offs in price-sensitive markets, which could offset gains. The balance will lie in how well broadcasters manage packaging—because the focus is clearly shifting from pure scale to sustainable profitability.”

That shift—from scale to monetisation—has made packaging a critical lever, with broadcasters increasingly relying on bundling and segmentation rather than blanket price increases.

This is already visible in how networks are restructuring their offerings. According to sources close to JioStar, the network’s revised Reference Interconnect Offer (RIO) is built around curated packs rather than across-the-board hikes. The strategy focuses on bundling channels across genres—general entertainment, movies, kids, infotainment, news and sports—while keeping the overall increase moderate at around 10%.

“Average price increase is 10.3% (CAGR). Prices remain aligned with inflation trends (CPI -5% over 2021–25). Content creation costs, sports rights and production investments have grown sharply over the past 5 years. Despite rising costs across essentials (fuel, healthcare, education, personal care), pricing remains accessible and value-driven,” the source said.

Pankaj Krishna, Founder of Chrome OTT, says the hikes reflect a more nuanced approach to monetisation. “Led by JioStar’s approximately 10% price hike, followed closely by SPNL (Sony) and ZEE, we are seeing a shift toward a more sustainable, value-driven revenue model. I feel that the hikes are not a blanket increase; they are highly targeted. Interestingly, we are seeing minimal impact on Hindi SD (Standard Definition) packages. This suggests that broadcasters are rightly keen on protecting their mass-market base while looking for growth in more premium or specialized segments.”

To soften the impact on consumers while improving yields, bundling has become central to the strategy, he adds. “To mitigate the impact on the end consumer, broadcasters are bundling high-demand content with niche offerings to keep the consumer within their network ecosystem while still achieving higher average yields.”

The most visible shifts, however, are emerging at the premium end of the market. “The most significant movement is in the Regional HD space, where prices have hiked by an average of 28%. This highlights a clear trend: the regional viewer is increasingly willing to pay for high-definition quality. Broadcasters are aggressively monetizing this ‘premiumization’ of regional content.”

From a market standpoint, the urgency behind these moves is closely tied to subscriber trends.

Karan Taurani, EVP at Elara Capital, points out that pricing is also a response to a shrinking pay-TV base. “So, from a broadcaster standpoint, I think they are indulging into price hikes which are in excess of 10%. This is on two reasons. One is to arrest the decline in number of paid subscribers, which is really coming down. I think DTH and MSOs, both are reporting a lower number and second, of course, they are trying to offset negative impact of ad revenue as well through these kinds of price hikes. So potentially these are two reasons. They are kind of compensating that via a price hike and that's why the price hike would be far more steep. But overall subscription revenue growth is in high single-digit kind of a range.”

This trend is also visible in the financials. Across broadcasters, subscription revenues are rising steadily, but the gains are increasingly being driven by digital platforms, while linear TV subscription revenues remain under pressure. At the same time, advertising growth has weakened, widening the gap between overall revenue growth and rising content and distribution costs. According to industry experts, this divergence is a key factor behind the current round of channel price hikes, as broadcasters look to stabilise revenues and protect margins.

Zee Entertainment Enterprises illustrates this gap clearly. Subscription revenue increased to ₹3,926 crore in FY25 from ₹3,666 crore in FY24 and ₹3,332 crore in FY23. However, advertising income fell to ₹3,591 crore in FY25 from ₹4,057 crore in FY24 and FY23.

The pressure is more pronounced in recent quarters. Advertising revenue declined to ₹806 crore in Q2 FY26 from ₹901 crore a year earlier, and to ₹758 crore in Q1 FY26 from ₹911 crore in Q1 FY25. For the first half of FY26, ad revenue dropped to ₹1,564 crore from ₹1,813 crore in the same period last year.

Subscription income, meanwhile, continued to grow modestly—reaching ₹1,023 crore in Q2 FY26 from ₹970 crore a year ago, and ₹2,004 crore in H1 FY26 compared with ₹1,957 crore in H1 FY25. Even so, the gains have not been enough to offset the advertising decline. Total revenue fell to ₹8,417 crore in FY25 from ₹8,766 crore in FY23, despite cost rationalisation.

Sony Pictures Networks India shows a similar trajectory. Subscription revenue rose from ₹2,989 crore in FY23 to ₹3,206 crore in FY24 and ₹3,375 crore in FY25, while advertising revenue weakened to ₹2,668 crore in FY25. Overall revenue declined despite subscription growth, weighed down by softer advertising and higher costs.

Sun TV Network mirrors the same trend. Advertising revenue fell to ₹292 crore in Q2 FY26 from ₹335 crore a year earlier, and to ₹290 crore in Q1 FY26 from ₹323 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. For H1 FY26, ad revenue declined to ₹582 crore from ₹658 crore. Subscription income, however, rose to ₹476 crore in Q2 FY26 from ₹437 crore in Q2 FY25, and to ₹946 crore in H1 FY26 from ₹862 crore a year earlier. On an annual basis, subscription revenue increased from ₹1,721 crore in FY23 to ₹1,823 crore in FY25, even as advertising softened.

The picture is more complex for JioStar, which now houses the former Star India operations. Following its reorganisation, the company reported revenue of ₹11,035 crore for the period from November 14, 2024 to March 31, 2025. In FY26, it posted ₹11,222 crore in Q1 and ₹7,232 crore in Q2, taking first-half revenue to ₹18,454 crore. Analysts believe digital subscriptions—driven by Hotstar and JioCinema—are growing, but at a measured pace.

Historical trends suggest the slowdown was already underway. Advertising revenue stood at ₹10,737 crore in FY24, down from ₹11,187 crore in FY23, while subscription revenue remained relatively flat at ₹6,909 crore in FY24 compared to ₹7,000 crore in FY23.

What emerges is a clear structural split: linear TV subscription is under pressure due to cord-cutting and lower operator payouts, while digital subscription is growing but not yet at a pace that can fully offset those losses.

Even premium content spikes offer only temporary relief. Marquee sports properties such as the IPL continue to drive viewership, but the rising cost of acquiring these rights has significantly compressed profitability.

Taken together, the numbers point to a three-way squeeze—rising content costs, weakening advertising, and pressure on linear subscription revenues—while digital growth remains gradual. This widening gap between revenue growth and cost inflation lies at the heart of the current pricing cycle.

Broadcasters have revised prices incrementally over the past few years, often through bouquet restructuring and RIO updates. The current round, however, marks a more coordinated and sharper shift, with hikes of around 10% becoming the norm and significantly higher increases in premium segments.

More importantly, it reflects a strategic pivot. The industry is moving away from a scale-first model toward one focused on monetisation and margin resilience, with subscription revenue taking centre stage.

The challenge now lies in execution. Higher pricing may support margins in the near term, but it also risks accelerating consumer migration toward free or digital platforms. How well broadcasters balance pricing power with audience retention will determine whether this reset strengthens the television business—or hastens its transformation.