The Direct to Home broadcasting or DTH industry has lost nearly 8 million subscribers in the last three years according to data recently published by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. Experts believe that this is a result of rising broadband subscriptions as well complex regulations that are distorting market dynamics for the broadcasting sector. 

DTH service is a broadcasting service which uses satellite signals to distribute multichannel TV programmes to the subscribers’ homes. According to TRAI data, the industry has been consistently losing subscribers in the last three years. 

Since 2021, the number of subscribers for the four major DTH players has reduced by nearly 7.6 million according to TRAI’s Indian Telecom Services Yearly Performance Indicators 2023-24. According to the report, the active subscriber base for these providers was 61.97 million as of March 31 2024, down from 69.57 million as of  March 31 2021.

This decline has been fairly consistent in the last three years, with operators cumulatively losing approximately 2.5 million subscribers every year since 2021. This decline came even as DTH operators launched OTT aggregation plans in the intermittent three years to stem subscriber loss to streaming giants like Netflix and Amazon Prime. 

As digitisation gains prominence it is very natural that linear television has lost its foothold. However it is interesting that OTT aggregation plans like Tata Play Binge and others have not stymied subscriber loss. 

Popularity of broadband

Prashant Singhal, TMT Leader - Emerging Markets at EY, explained, “As it became important for most households in tier-1 and tier-2 cities to have home broadband – users naturally upgraded to OTT packs on home broadbands instead of DTH. While DTH might provide an interesting proposition giving multiple OTTs at an affordable price, the growing popularity of broadband services, particularly the OTT aggregation that broadband players offer as well, has allowed streaming to continue to rise at a healthy pace, eating into the linear television market.”

Singhal believes that DTH will remain relevant for the foreseeable future, “India is a mixed market. Broadband penetration is still low in the majority of Indian households. Moreover DTH is a far more affordable service.”

Vivan Sharan of Koan Advisory added that complex economic regulation is also hurting the competitiveness of the DTH industry, “TRAI persisting with complex economic regulation that distorts market dynamics such as incentives for content creation and a simultaneous lack of regulatory focus on quality of service at the last mile, with the set top box digitisation conducted over a decade ago being the last big pro consumer reform.”

TRAI is drafting recommendations for the National Broadcasting Policy and DTH players are making two consistent demands. Firstly, they want the regulator to do away with the 8 per cent license fee on DTH services and secondly they want complete forbearance on tariff rates for TV channels. It is unlikely that the regulator will grant these demands however.

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