Top MSOs, DTH cos lose millions of subscribers in Sept quarter: TRAI

New Delhi: Most Major MSOs (Multiple Systems Operators) have shown a quarter-on-quarter decline in the subscriber base, a performance report by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has shown. 

There are only 11 MSOs and 1 HITS operator who have a subscriber base of more than 10 lakh. As per the latest report launched by TRAI, most of these top MSOs have shown a decline except for a few MSOs, which saw an increase in the subscriber base. 

GPTL Hathway, the MSO with the largest number of subscribers, showed a decline of almost 2 lakh subscribers in just one quarter. Similarly, Siti Networks, the third-largest as per subscriber base, lost almost 3.5 lakh subscribers in a single quarter. 

Emerging as exceptions to the trend, Tamil Nadu’s Thamigzha Cable TV Communication Ltd. (TCCL) and Kerala’s Kerala Communicators Cable Ltd. (KCCL) were the only two MSOs that registered an uptick in the subscriber base.

A similar situation was seen in the number of subscribers of pay DTH. The DTH sector saw a cumulative decline of more than 20 lakh subscribers in the quarter ending September 2024. In contrast to this, the sector had a minor shoot-up in the subscriber base in the previous quarter. 

Putting things in perspective, the TRAI report mentioned that the total active subscriber base has increased from 6.197 crore in March 2024 to 6.217 crore in June 2024. The subscriber base in September 2024 fell to 5.991 crore.