‘Construct of the industry is anti-DTH’

[IndianMascot]

Dish TV Managing Director Jawahar Goel says the journey has been difficult for the DTH player in the country. He, however, is confident that the company is “almost home” and would soon turn profitable.

He spoke to The Hindu about the industry and the company. Excerpts:


How has the journey been for you and how has the industry evolved?

We are as old as this industry in India. When we applied for DTH licences, the regulations were not very clear. Then, we had to struggle for the content. Star did not give us content nor did Sony. ESPN asked for a huge amount. Besides, Satellite capacity was also limited. There were only four transponders. So, we started services with only 48 channels. And, with 48 channels, we could not have gone all out in the market. So, we devised a strategy, dividing the market into three categories — cable dry, cable frustrated and cable rich. We went in the cable dry market i.e. we started with rural where there were no cable services.

Thereafter, we migrated to a foreign satellite which gave us more capacity. It took us about two-and-a-half-years to sort out content deals as regulations had not yet matured and mostly the regulations were based on the rulings of TDSAT.

Then, every year we had a new competitor emerging. And, these were big competitors with big pockets such as Tata, Reliance, Star, Sun TV and Airtel.

Can you give an idea of set-top box prices, and how much is your customer acquisition cost?

For standard definition, the price of boxes both for cable and DTH is between $12-18. In high definition, it is somewhere around $19-24. When we started our business, we were buying standard definition boxes at $52. So, from that point, it has come down by one third.

We have a subscriber acquisition cost of about Rs.2,000. We invest in terms of taxes, installation etc. So, we take a hit of Rs. 2,000 when we acquire a subscriber.

We get to recover in two-to-three year time if the subscriber stays with us. If boxes are just lying around, they are just environmental hazards.



‘Construct of the industry is anti-DTH’ - The Hindu

 

[NinadG]

Good to know about carriage fee & content fee....
SD box price has fallen from $52 to $12.....still continue to fall....but for ordinary user prices continue to increase....

 

[DashMajor]

And still dishtv struggling to get contents. I never saw a year when dishtv provided everything in the base pack.

 

[IndianMascot]

It's not on Dish TV wish always to add channels in base pack. Most of the time it's Broadcaster who decide which channel to be added in which package. FTA channels will always be in lowest base pack but other channels availability in any package purely depend upon the deal and mutual agreement between Broadcaster and service providers

 

[DashMajor]

Seems like every broadcaster now considering d2h is a next big thing because they're the one who giving everything in the starter pack.

 

[timkamat]

That's what I want to ask. If d2h can give channels in base pack , why can't dish TV?

 

[NinadG]

Is D2H trying to consolidate its position as its seeing something that is coming in their way in next few months & they are preparing..............?

 

[IndianMascot]

I think its the deal which might have cracked by their marketing team this year due to which more and more channels are getting added in base packages. Just opposite Dish TV fought with almost all broadcaster with whom their deal renewal was due.

 

[NinadG]

So what would happen to Dishtv...? Will this affect Dishtv in long term......?
Goel says that Dishtv still has 28% share in DTH market.

 

[DashMajor]

D2H 's deal might be simple they might be clear with broadcasters not to pay carriage fee but allow costly channels in the starter pack which will fancy their packages.

But in other hand dishtv might saying that we're ready to take all important channel but don't buckle the less popular and newly launch channel deal to be sign separately which other broadcasters not liking because they want viewership ultimately.