India registers 3.33 million more DTH subscribers in 4Q 2015

Wednesday, May 18th, 2016
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India logo

NEW DELHI — The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) today released the “Indian Telecom Services Performance Indicator Report” for the Quarter ending December, 2015. The Report provides a broad perspective of the Telecom Services and presents the key parameters and growth trends for the Telecom Services as well as Cable TV, DTH and Radio Broadcasting services in India for the period covering 1st October to 31st December, 2015 and is compiled on the basis of information furnished by the Service Providers.

Cable TV Sector

The digitization, with addressability of cable TV sector is in progress, in a phased manner. It is planned to be completed in four phases. The cut-off date for migration to “Digital Addressable Cable TV Systems” for the first phase, covering four metropolitan cities, was 31.10.2012 and for second phase, covering 38 cities having population more than 1 million, was 30.03.2013. The cut-off date for third phase was 30.09.2014 and for the fourth and final phase was 31.12.2014. However, the cut-off date for third phase & fourth phase was further extended up to 31.12.2015 & 31.12.2016 respectively.

DTH Services

At present, apart from the free DTH service of Doordarshan, a public broadcaster, there are 6 private DTH Operators. All these private DTH Operators are offering pay DTH services.

As per the information submitted by the DTH operator through the quarterly PMR for DTH services, the total number of registered subscribers and active subscribers being served by these six private DTH operators, as reported to TRAI, are 84.80 million and 55.98, million respectively as on 31st December, 2015.

As of this quarter, the net active subscriber base includes a number of temporarily suspended subscribers who have been inactive for not more than 120 days.

This change of methodology, in combination with market growth since September 2015, gives a figure for the number of active subscribers added during the quarter of 14.93 million.

DTH subscribers (millions)

                                                  2014
            ------------------------------------------
            End-March   End-June  End-Sept.   End-Dec.
            ---------  ---------  ---------  ---------
Registered      64.82      67.57      70.33      73.06
 Active         37.19      38.24      39.13      40.54
 Inactive       27.63      29.33      31.20      32.52

                                                  2015
            ------------------------------------------
            End-March   End-June  End-Sept.  End-Dec.   4Q Adds   YoY Adds  
            ---------  ---------  ---------  ---------  -------  ---------
Registered      76.05      78.74      81.47      84.80     3.33      11.74
 Active         41.15      39.74      41.05      55.98    14.93      15.44
 Inactive       34.90      39.00      40.42      28.82    11.60      -3.70