Direct-to-home operator Dish TV is beefing up its presence in the content aggregation space as the DTH market continues to see a customer exodus to DD Free Dish and OTT platforms.
Dish TV, which has around 10-11 million DTH subscribers, will soon introduce a new service as part of its Watcho platform, an OTT aggregator, allowing content creators to upload and monetise their videos of any duration. Dish TV is calling the service Flix, which will be a window within the Watcho platform for easy access, CEO Manoj Dobhal said in an interaction with FE on Wednesday. Watcho is expected to get a share of the revenue generated from the content uploaded on the platform.
“Erosion of DTH subscribers at the top end to OTT platforms and at the lower end to DD Free Dish will continue,” he said. “However, (DTH) operators who can transform themselves into hybrid players will survive. This will mean a more well-rounded focus on distribution and content,” Dobhal said of the way forward for the company. Dish TV also has amongst the thinnest boards in India Inc, with under three members, which Dobhal said has not been a hindrance in any way as the focus remains on building the company operationally.
As of September 2024, total paid DTH subscribers (excluding DD Free Dish) stood at around 59.91 million, down from 64.18 million in September 2023, reflecting an industry-wide decline. Tata Play currently leads the DTH market with a 31.99% share, or approximately 19 million subscribers, according to data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai). Airtel’s DTH arm, Bharti Telemedia, follows closely with a 29.38% market share or nearly 18 million subscribers. Dish TV is ranked third in the pecking order and Sun Direct is ranked fourth.
Dobhal said that he sees consolidation in the DTH market with Bharti Airtel confirming talks with the Tata Group for a proposed merger of their DTH businesses as a good move. “I don’t see it as a monopolistic situation at all,” he said. “Instead, a coming together could actually bring sanity in the market, reduce losses and improve pricing strategies, given that the DTH market has faced significant challenges in the last few years,” he said.
Dobhal has also called for the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to reduce the DTH licensing fee from the current 8% to 3% of the adjusted gross revenue (AGR) in keeping with Trai’s recommendations on the same.
“Implementing Trai’s recommendations will unlock greater investment, foster innovation and improve consumer access to quality services,” Dobhal said.
Currently, over 90% of the topline of Dish TV comes from the DTH business, as the Watcho platform is at its nascent stage. Dobhal said that he expects services such as Flix as well as more alliances via OTT and content aggregation to increase the revenue and subscriber numbers of Watcho. The latter has over 3 million paid subscribers and offers over 18-20 OTT apps including regional as well as popular OTT platforms (such as SonyLiv, Zee5 etc).
Last week, Watcho partnered with Mumbai-based startup CloudWalker to integrate its content library into the latter’s Cloud TV OS, which is an operating system for smart TVs. The collaboration will enable Watcho’s library to reach smart TVs that have the Cloud TV OS, estimated at over 200 TV brands.
Dobhal said that the TV ecosystem is rapidly becoming smart and connected. So, tie-ups such as these will pave the way for Watcho to reach more consumers across the entertainment value chain.
Parallely, as part of its endeavour to strengthen India’s content ecosystem, Dish TV has also launched Content India 2025 in partnership with UK-based C21Media. Content India was held in Mumbai on Wednesday.
Dobhal said that initiatives such as Content India will address the need to strengthen the domestic content ecosystem by fostering cross-border collaborations, encouraging innovation, and showcasing the country’s capabilities in production, post-production, and content creation.