Dish TV reports higher Q3 operating revenue

Adds 829,000 new subscribers; leads in incremental share

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Delhi | January 24, 2013

Dish TV India has reported third quarter ended on December 31, 2012 standalone operating revenues of Rs 5,578 million, recording 13.1% growth over the corresponding period last fiscal. EBITDA of Rs 1,377 million registered 4.8% increase over the corresponding quarter last fiscal. EBITDA margin for the quarter stood at 24.7%.

Subhash Chandra, Chairman, Dish TV, said, “The Indian media industry is witnessing a sea change as it moves towards a fully digitised environment. With the government remaining committed to the cause, stakeholders across the value chain are working overtime to make the best of the opportunity. As digitisation sweeps the pay-TV households in India, platforms with evolved business systems and processes having last mile reach are likely to have an upper edge.”

“Amongst DTH platforms, Dish TV with its technological lead and superior product line-up is one of the best placed to capitalise on the digitisation mandate,” he added.

Jawahar Goel, Managing Director, Dish TV, said, “While the distribution industry remained on tenterhooks preparing for digitisation, the third quarter saw the much debated compulsory switch-off of analog television signals take place in key metro markets. Although lack of execution in Chennai and Kolkata was a dampener, festival demand coupled with mandatory conversion in Delhi and Mumbai brought the DTH industry back to the 1 million plus monthly run-rate. DTH garnered around 35% share of incremental additions post the sunset date.”

“In line with our expectation, we witnessed significant subscriber uptake around the sunset date of October 31, 2012. Dish TV achieved the largest share of 28% amongst DTH platforms in the digitisation territories. 'Dish+', India's first standard definition recorder, played its part in differentiating and attracting consumer interest in a crowded market,” he added.

Commenting on the third quarter performance, Goel said, “A larger base did create pressure on the average revenue per user which, primarily supported by price hike in the second quarter, increased marginally to Rs 160. In the third quarter, apart from the usual additional spends typically experienced due to the festive season, additionally this year the company's investments to capitalise on the digitisation opportunity are also reflected in higher costs during the quarter. A seasonally higher marketing expense was as per budget. Content cost for the year is expected to be within the guided range of 12% increase over the previous fiscal.”

Info@BestMediaInfo.com

Info@BestMediaInfo.com