Important Dish TV, Videocon d2h and Airtel Digital TV in talks to form JV for content and carriage

[IndianMascot]

Dish TV, Videocon d2h and Airtel Digital TV are in discussions to set up a Joint Venture with equal stakes.

The broad intent of the three DTH companies is to have a structure similar to the channel distribution companies. This will allow them muscle power to negotiate with the broadcasters on content and carriage deals.

The move comes in the wake of a consolidation fever gripping the television channel distribution companies. The pay TV market is predominantly handled by Media Pro Enterprise India—a JV between Star Den Media Services and Zee Turner, MSM Discovery—a partnership between Multi Screen Media (formerly Sony Entertainment Television India) and Discovery, and IndiaCast UTV—a collaboration between TV18, Viacom18 and The Walt Disney Company India. Sun Distribution Services is the fourth entity that has a strong say in dealing with the multi-system operators (MSOs) and DTH outfits.


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[Deep Patel]

It would be great if it happens...it will benefit all the way to customers but chances are less. RDtv and Sun also couldn't do that...

 

[irshadkhan]

IndianMascot great update.
This will benefit both, dth as well as customers. This will also have some influence on channel pricing for sure.

 

[IndianMascot]

Yeah. Even TRAI and MIB is working on some regulations which will lead to some control on Carriage fee and availability part.

It's our bad luck that this government didn't take forward the digitization campaign the way it started. Since Manish Tewari become I&B minister, we never heard anything about digitization.

Otherwise these things would have got done and implemented long back

 

[IndianMascot]

DTH should get carriage fees equal to MSOs’

The rapid growth of the direct-to-home (DTH) industry in India has been riddled with financial potholes. High debt, low average revenue per user (ARPUs), rising content costs, an unfavourable tax regime and excessive competition have made the road rocky.

Dish TV has initiated talks with Airtel Digital TV and Videocon d2h to form a joint venture that would work on content and carriage agreements with broadcasters. The move signals consolidation among DTH operators similar to what is being witnessed in the broadcast distribution sector.

Dish TV chief executive officer RC Venkateish believes that there is an uneven balance of power between DTH operators and the content aggregators. The coming together of the three DTH operators will help them to reduce content costs and earn carriage income that is commensurate with its reach.

Venkateish, who earlier made his mark in the sports broadcasting business as CEO of ESPN Star Sports, rules out any plans of making investments in transitioning from MPEG-2 to MPEG-4. Tata Sky, he feels, was forced to take that route because it faced a severe space crunch and could not get new transponders.

Dish TV is planning to add five transponders, a move that will help it beam 65 more channels and drive carriage revenues. Faced with a muted subscriber growth, Venkateish feels there is huge opportunity for DTH operators to add more subscribers in Phases III and IV of digitisation. He is confident that Dish TV will add a million subscribers this year.



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