Cable firms look for bigger pie of Bharat
Cos rush for HITS licence, eye recurring annual revenue of Rs.800 cr
After servicing metros and top 50 cities in India, the big boys of the cable business are eying an even bigger market of 150 million additional cable subscribers residing in Bharat — rural and semi-urban towns and villages — which is currently not on the radar of advertisers and marketers. At stake is an annual recurring subscription revenue pie of over R800 crore.
One such firm among the four aspirants, Grant Investrade, also known as GHITS, a Hinduja Ventures entity, is lining up investments of R800-R1,000 crore for its Headend-In-the-Sky (HITS) cable services. Hinduja Ventures is already present as a national-level multi-service operator (MSO) under its cable arm InCable. GHITS is waiting for its licence from the government. Jain TV Group's Noida Software Technology Park has already obtained the HITS licence while two other individuals have also applied for the HITS licence, official sources said.
As it awaits the licence, GHITS wants to lay down the ground for connecting with a bulk of 40,000-50,000 small and independent cable operators in rural and semi-urban India via its satellite-based HITS services.
GHITS is offering a neutral platform (no alignment with any broadcaster), billing, call-centre and allied services apart from supplying digital set-top-boxes (STB). The company plans to raise around R1,000 crore over the next few years, as it moves to the hinterland.
According to Tony D'Silva, CEO of GHITS, the company will offer LCO’s the benefit of “lower cost” on STB due to bulk
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