Can India’s B2B-to-B2C TV model avoid redundancy?

New Delhi: India’s TV business was built on a B2B-to-B2C chain. Broadcasters sell content to multi-system operators (MSOs), direct-to-home (DTH) platforms and local cable operators (LCOs), who then deliver it to households and collect subscription revenue.

That model is now under pressure.

As connected TV (CTV) and digital platforms grow, broadcasters can go direct-to-consumer, advertisers can follow audiences across screens, and legacy cable and DTH networks are being forced to justify their place in the value chain.

BestMediaInfo.com spoke with industry stakeholders to find out if this B2B-to-B2C distribution model can survive, or if distribution platforms are drifting towards functional redundancy.

Even today, over 160 million households continue to rely on cable and DTH, and intermediaries remain vital in non-metro areas. But the ecosystem is shifting to a hybrid structure where digital and linear coexist while operating under very different rules.

Regulation keeps intermediaries in the game

An expert in the cable industry pointed out that historically, Indian broadcasters were not allowed to bypass intermediaries.

He traced their origin to the early days of the broadcasting ecosystem, when the government introduced the uplinking and downlinking policy.

“Uplinking means sending your signal up to the satellite. Downlinking means bringing that content into India for sale and distribution. Broadcasters were barred from providing content directly to consumers. They could only distribute through four licensed players: cable, DTH, IPTV and HITS,” he said.

OTT platforms, he noted, operate outside these constraints, creating a structural imbalance.

“OTT became a pure B2C model, while linear remained dependent on intermediaries. A broadcaster running an OTT app can directly sell to customers. But for linear TV, they must go through licensed intermediaries. Their decline is directly linked to broadband penetration,” he said.

From his perspective, the longevity of intermediaries has become less about market relevance and more about regulatory protection.

“If content pricing becomes platform-neutral and digital stays unregulated, MSOs and LCOs cannot survive. They are being protected through regulation,” he said.

Broadcasters weigh control against B2C costs

The move towards direct-to-consumer gives broadcasters control over pricing, packaging and customer data, but also a very different cost structure.

A top executive from a legacy broadcasting company explained the shift from a B2B to a B2C model.

“Earlier, I never had to acquire customers individually. But in a B2C world, everything changes. This cost is far higher than what I used to spend just to get placed on a cable operator’s network,” he said.

He highlighted the growing role of telecom companies as distributors of broadcaster apps.

“Today, telcos distribute our apps by bundling them with their broadband or mobile internet offerings. When it comes to Amazon bundles, it is around Rs 75. On cable, the equivalent cost is only Rs 30-40. Wherever the consumer goes, I have to go there,” the executive explained.

Despite these pressures, he said linear intermediaries remain significant because of their reach. According to him, linear TV still serves around 160 million households compared to 50-60 million CTV homes.

Criticising regulatory priorities, the broadcast executive said, “TRAI is over-regulating the pipe that is losing relevance. The over-regulation of cable and DTH is pushing consumers away.”

His prescription was not to abandon intermediaries altogether, but to make them more market-aligned by investing in infrastructure, allowing flexible pricing and using government subsidies to ease the transition.

Legacy roles, limited ambition

The structural and behavioural limits of intermediaries also shape their future.

Reflecting on the historical context, a distribution veteran highlighted how legacy practices feed into today’s problems.

He said local cable operators often emphasise their past role in helping broadcasters reach households, but argued that their current value needs to be reassessed.

“LCOs argue that their networks and reach enabled broadcasters to access homes. However, as their role diminishes, broadcasters are reassessing their relevance. Beyond historical contributions, the question is: what value do LCOs provide today?” he asked.

He also pointed to inefficiencies in subsidies and regulation. These, combined with regulatory protection, declining subscribers and limited operational ambition, explain why many intermediaries continue to operate without expanding.

“The underlying issue is declining subscribers. In any industry, growth incentives encourage expansion, but many intermediaries appear to prefer maintaining their current scale. Government and regulatory policies play a role in sustaining this structure,” he noted.

In effect, many intermediaries are defending their historical position rather than retooling for a world where broadcasters can increasingly reach the viewer without them.

Hybrid future, shrinking leverage

Cable and DTH networks still reach far more households than CTV, particularly outside metropolitan areas. But their control over monetisation and consumer relationships is steadily weakening.

Regulatory frameworks act as both a shield and a barrier, keeping intermediaries central to the B2B-to-B2C chain, while also constraining their ability to adapt and innovate.

For the foreseeable future, India’s TV ecosystem is likely to remain hybrid. Intermediaries retain scale and reach, but digital platforms offer precision, lower regulatory friction and better alignment with shifting consumer habits.

Amid all this, broadcasters face a strategic choice of either maintaining linear distribution under the shadow of intermediaries or investing more heavily in B2C digital models to reduce dependency.

For regulators such as TRAI, the challenge will be to reconcile a declining, heavily regulated linear universe with a booming, largely unregulated digital one, without locking the market into an outdated structure.

For now, India’s B2B-to-B2C TV distribution model survives on scale and regulatory scaffolding. Whether it avoids redundancy will depend on whether intermediaries can move beyond merely carrying signals and start proving, in a direct-to-consumer world, that they still add real value.