Dark horses disrupt DTH race order

The latest report from MPA indicates that some relatively new comess in DTH arena are doing better than the old stalwarts. Though Dish TV remains the No. 1 player based on gross and active subscribers, Bharti Airtel’s Digital TV — which was No. 4 until December — has emerged from the back to claim the No. 2 slot in terms of active users, pushing Tata Sky to No. 3 and Sun Direct to No. 4. Tata Sky, however, keeps the No. 2 slot in terms of gross subscribers.

Videocon’s D2H, which was the last in December, in terms of gross and active users, has beaten Reliance Big TV on both parameters, pushing it to the last slot. The new pecking order is significant since Videocon was the last to start DTH services. Reliance Big TV is part of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group.

DTH user base rose from 23 million in December to 27 million in July. Paying customers in a particular period form the active subscriber base, whereas gross numbers refer to the overall base including active and inactive users.

At the end of last year, India had 9 million inactive DTH users, which rose to 13 million in July — a jump of 40% in seven months, says the latest report from international media research agency Media Partners Asia (MPA). The total number of ‘active’ DTH subscriber base for July stood at 27 million while the gross numbers have touched the 40-million mark, the MPA report said.

However, on gross subscriber numbers, Dish TV with 11.2 million subscribers still leads the pack of six DTH operators while Tata Sky is at the second place with 7.5 million subscribers.

Source: http://cablequest.org/news/dth-news/item/499-dark-horses-disrupt-dth-race-order.html
Source: http://cablequest.org/news/dth-news/item/499-dark-horses-disrupt-dth-race-order.html