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Dish TV, India’s top direct-to-home (DTH) operator, is considering domestic sourcing of digital set-top-boxes (STBs) to offset rising costs due to rupee depreciation.
A flagging rupee has been an industry-wide concern for a while now, calling for efforts to control the related impact on business, the company’s top official said.
Jawahar Goel, managing director, Dish TV India, said on a recent analyst call, “Given the depreciating rupee, we are evaluating possibilities for improvement in hardware economics of consumer premises equipment (CPE) sourced from India. We have also been considering options with our overseas suppliers to commence production at a base in India.”
Last month, Dish TV had taken a price hike of `250 per STB to bridge the widening gap between cost of CPE and the amount realised from the customer.
Other DTH players such as Tata Sky, Airtel Digital and Reliance Digital followed suit by increasing prices broadly in the same range.
Also, in this year’s Budget, Union finance minister P Chidambaram had hiked customs duty on imported STBs from 5% to 10%. Considering there aren’t many domestic manufacturers of STBs for the digital cable and DTH sectors, the government’s decision to make imported STBs expensive was seen as a move to incentivise domestic manufacturing and bringing more players in the market.
Among the few local STB manufacturers are Noida-based Dixon Technologies, Kortek Electronics and Videocon Industries. International players including Hampshire-based Exset are understood to be exploring tie-ups with Indian manufacturers to produce STBs here.
Industry experts said Dish TV’s move to source STBs locally may be followed by other players, experts said.
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A flagging rupee has been an industry-wide concern for a while now, calling for efforts to control the related impact on business, the company’s top official said.
Jawahar Goel, managing director, Dish TV India, said on a recent analyst call, “Given the depreciating rupee, we are evaluating possibilities for improvement in hardware economics of consumer premises equipment (CPE) sourced from India. We have also been considering options with our overseas suppliers to commence production at a base in India.”
Last month, Dish TV had taken a price hike of `250 per STB to bridge the widening gap between cost of CPE and the amount realised from the customer.
Other DTH players such as Tata Sky, Airtel Digital and Reliance Digital followed suit by increasing prices broadly in the same range.
Also, in this year’s Budget, Union finance minister P Chidambaram had hiked customs duty on imported STBs from 5% to 10%. Considering there aren’t many domestic manufacturers of STBs for the digital cable and DTH sectors, the government’s decision to make imported STBs expensive was seen as a move to incentivise domestic manufacturing and bringing more players in the market.
Among the few local STB manufacturers are Noida-based Dixon Technologies, Kortek Electronics and Videocon Industries. International players including Hampshire-based Exset are understood to be exploring tie-ups with Indian manufacturers to produce STBs here.
Industry experts said Dish TV’s move to source STBs locally may be followed by other players, experts said.
Wish to read further, ------->
