Television

Industry
 Direct-To-Home(DTH)
 Direct-to-Home (DTH) television is a
method of receiving satellite
television by means of signals
transmitted from direct-broadcast
satellites.
 India is the largest DTH market in the
world by number of subscribers. As
on 30 June 2019, there were
54.36 million active pay DTH
subscribers in the country. These
figures do not include subscribers of
free DTH services.
 How direct-to-home actually works:-
 With a service that needs a set-top-
box (STB) to engage in content
grabbing all the time, DTH operators
rely on satellites to get their work
done. These satellites cover the whole
of India and to some extent even its
neighbouring countries through their
circular coverage. But one thing,
DTH service needs to maintain is the
bandwidth of the content being
provided which is made with the use
of a certain number of transponders.
 List of DTH Providers
S.
Service Provider Launch date SubscribersJune 2019 Ownership
No.

Bharti Airtel
1. Airtel digital TV October 2008 12.50 million Limited (80%)Warburg
Pincus (20%)

2. DD Free Dish December 2004 35.0 million Prasar Bharati

Sun Network (80%)

3. Sun Direct December 2007 7.61 million
Astro Group (20%)

Tata Sons (60%)

The Walt Disney
Company (through the
4. Tata Sky August 2006 17.39 million acquisition of 21st
Century Fox assets)
(30%)
Temasek Holdings(10%)

Zee Entertainment
5. Dish TV October 2003 29.0 million
Enterprises
 Information on Developmentsin 2019 for
DTHs
 The price of set top boxes (STB) in India has plummeted in the decade since DTH services were launched. A standard STB was priced at 3999 in 2003,
but dropped to 500 by 2014. In the same year, a DVR box capable of recording television programmes was priced at 2500.
 The government permitted 100% FDI in the DTH industry in November 2015, with 49% through the automatic route and higher investments subject to
government approval.
 Videocon d2h began offering a preview of 4K Ultra HD content on its DTH service in July 2014, and launched India's first 4K Ultra HD channel on 26
January 2015. The channel is not dedicated to single genre and instead broadcasts video on demand (VOD), lifestyle and travel content,
sports, infotainment, concerts and Hollywood films. The channel also telecasts 4K content created by international broadcasters. The first programs
telecast on the channel were live broadcasts of select matches from the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup. Tata Sky also offered live broadcasts of select
matches in 4K.
 Reliance Big TV was sold to Pantel Technologies and Veecon Media and Television in 2018. It was rebranded and relaunched as Independent TV. On 22
March 2018, Dish TV merged with Videocon d2h, creating the largest DTH provider in India.
 The top five pay Direct to Home (DTH) providers added just 80,000 net pay subscribers in the quarter ending September 2018 as opposed to the April-
June quarter, reported Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). In the July-September quarter, the five DTH operators amassed around 69.45
million subscribers compared to the 69.37 million subscribers in the following quarter ending July 31. Dish TV added 2,00,000 subscribers in the second
quarter of FY19, whereas, Airtel Digital TV added 133,000 subscribers in the same period. The five DTH providers had boasted of having 1.84 million
net active pay subscribers during the April-June quarter of 2018.
 Comparison in Features and plans of DTH
and Streaming Sites
Tata Airtel Videocon Sun
Dish TV
YouTube Hotstar Prime Video Netflix Sky DTH D2H Direct

Rs 199 Rs 129
Starter plan Free Rs 500 SD STB Rs
(monthly) (monthly) Rs 1,549 Rs 1,619 Rs 1,649 Rs 1,790
price 1,950
Rs 999 Rs 999
Highest plan Free Rs 800
(yearly) (yearly) HD STB Rs
Rs 2,099 Rs 2,100 Rs 1,799 Rs 1,699
unlimited price 2,099
Multi-user no restriction unlimited up to 4 users
logins
Minimum
Mobile app Yes Yes Yes Yes
monthly Rs 99 Rs 99 Rs 99 Rs 85 Rs 199
Smart TV Yes most TVs Yes Yes plan

Streaming Maximum
Google Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV Stick, Mi TV Box
Hardware monthly Rs 560 Rs 777 Rs 525 Rs 475 Rs 379
plan
Live TV Not in India Yes (Max -
No No
channels yet 30)
Total
Channels
546 319 461 390 312
4K support Yes No Yes Yes
 How is streaming better?

 While total prices of such services would amount as much as a DTH connection if take
into account your annual expenditure, there are a few areas where streaming sounds
like a likely option for content viewing. At a time when you’re already accustomed to
1080p content and are gradually shifting to videos in 4K, DTH operators still provide
HD channels at 720p resolution. The number of HD channels in itself is negligible in
contrast to the number of SD channels, meaning there’s no point having a 4K TV
which plays pixelated content unless it’s smart TV.

 While DTH provides you with larger (unwanted) content, Streaming services will let
you watch your favourite TV show or a movie at the time you want it to be played.
Even more so, there’s no schedule for a particular content to be watched and
rewatched as online libraries are constantly updated with larger space to equip
more and more content, meaning you can start or resume the TV show you might
have watched, months after the last time you played it. On most occasions, there are
no ads and you can pause and play content at your will without worrying that you
might miss out on a scene or two. Even in terms of reliability, streaming services score
the brownie points since most DTH networks are rendered unusable under a rainy
weather while internet works for the most part of the day consistently.
 Through the years

 While FHD(Full High Definitions) streams are nowhere close to being employed,
streaming services like Netflix, Youtube and Prime video have been engaging on
adding more and more 4K resolution content to their online library, rendering
DTH services useless as the days pass by. Not to mention the sheer amount of
money that would need to be spent on additional transponders which will then
only be able to telecast a single 4K stream which isn’t feasible in the long run of
things for dish services.

 Now getting back to streaming apps and websites, there’s one thing to note and
that is the fact that these services are further dependent on your internet
connection and the bundled data that comes with your plan.
Change in Market Shares for DTH
Providers
 There were also changes observed in the market share of the DTH providers as well.
Dish TV’s market share fell to 41% from 42% while Airtel Digital TV’s market share
increased by a percentage point to 22%. Tata Sky, Sun Direct and Reliance Digital
TV’s share remain unchanged at 25%, 11%, and 1%. It is worth noting that apart from
these five DTH operators, there is also the DD Free Dish which is an operator under
Doordarshan and has 30 million subscribers.
 The number of pay channels also shot up during the second quarter of FY19, after
which the total number stood at 313 up from the previous pay channel count of 309. A
total of 49 broadcasters listed these 313 channels and comprised of 216 SD channels
and 97 HD channels. These four new channels included three entirely brand-new pay
channels and a conversion of a Free to Air (FTA) channel, namely NDTV India into a
pay channel. The three new pay channels included Travel XP, Sony Marathi, and
Colors Kannada Cinema. During this period, United Home Entertainment was also
merged with Disney Broadcasting India.
 Television Industry
Market
Capitalization
 Indian Television Industry has gained new momentum due to
liberalization and enhanced enthusiasm by the broadcasters
to seize a huge share of the entertainment industry. Indian
Television Industry in 2009 stood at US$5.65 billion
registering a growth of 6.8%. The industry is projected to
grow at a CAGR of 15.5 and reach around US$11.45 billion
by 2014.
Size of the
Industry
Over the years the number of private satellite TV
channels has grown astronomically, from1 TV
channel in 2000 to 394 TV channels in 2009. The
number of non-news and current affairs TV channels
has grown from 0 to 183 and that of news and current
affairs TV channels has grown from 1 to 211.
 Recent Developments/Investments
in the Television Industry
 The Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows in the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) sector (including Print Media) in
the period April 2000 – March 2019 stood at US$ 8.38 billion, as per data released by Department for Promotion of Industry
and Internal Trade (DPIIT).
 Dailyhunt , a regional language news aggregator run by Verse Innovation Pvt Ltd, will receive investment of US$ 60 million
in a new funding round led by Goldman Sachs Investment Partners.
 As of September 2018, Twitter announced video content collaboration with 12 Indian partners for video highlights and live
streaming of sports, entertainment and news.
 As of August 2018, PVR Ltd acquired SPI Cinema for worth US$ 94.42 million.
 In H12018, 5 private equity investments deals were recorded of worth US$ 115 million.
 The Indian digital advertising industry is expected to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 32 per cent to
reach Rs 18,986 crore (US$ 2.93 billion) by 2020, backed by affordable data and rising smartphone penetration.
 India is one of the top five markets for the media, content and technology agency Wavemaker where it services clients like
Hero MotoCorp, Paytm, IPL and Myntra among others
 After bagging media rights of Indian Premier League (IPL), Star India has also won broadcast and digital rights for New
Zealand Cricket upto April 2020.
 TV Broadcasting & Software Production
Net Profit as per the latest Profit & Loss Account available.
Net Profit
Company Name Last Price Change % Change
(Rs. cr)
Zee Entertain 278.90 -0.70 -0.25 1,655.00

Sun TV Network 458.25 -2.50 -0.54 1,394.86

TV Today Network 245.00 1.10 0.45 129.90

TV18 Broadcast 21.70 -0.55 -2.47 85.05

Music Broadcast 28.80 0.20 0.70 61.62

Ent Network India 227.45 -10.60 -4.45 53.92

NDTV 26.45 -0.05 -0.19 13.32

Raj Television 43.00 1.00 2.38 5.40

Padmalaya Tele 2.60 -0.05 -1.89 -0.46

Landmarc Corp 0.49 -0.02 -3.92 -2.28

Nxtdigital 380.70 4.25 1.13 -47.20

Zee Media 6.55 0.03 0.46 -55.28

Siti Networks 1.99 -0.02 -1.00 -372.43

Network 18 26.45 0.45 1.73 -634.65