Dish TV PAT drops 25% in Q1FY17

The direct-to-home operator saw PAT drop on account of tax expenses, though revenue grew at 7% and EBITDA was up 12%

Direct-to-home (DTH) service provider Dish TV on Thursday reported consolidated revenues of Rs 778.6 crore for the quarter ended June 30 (Q1FY17), up 5.7% from last year’s Rs 736.7 crore. Subscription revenue for the quarter was Rs 728.2 crore, up 6.7% compared to Rs 682.8 crore in Q1FY16. 

Effective April 1, 2016, Dish TV has harmonised the accounting of entertainment tax in line with industry practice. Prior to this, entertainment tax was part of operating expenditure and is now netted-off against subscription revenues. On a like-to-like basis, the growth in subscription revenues is 12.3% Y-o-Y. Operating revenues were up 10.9% on a like-to-like basis Y-o-Y.

EBITDA for the quarter stood at Rs 264.6 crore, compared to Rs 235.7 crore in the corresponding quarter last fiscal, a growth of 12.2%, while the EBITDA margin was 34%. Profit before tax (PBT) was Rs 63.1 crore (Q1FY16 PBT was Rs 54.2 crore) and PAT for the quarter was Rs 40.9 crore, decreasing 24.6% from Q1FY16’s Rs 54.2 crore. 

While EBITDA saw growth on account of decrease in costs of goods, services and other expenses, PAT came down on account of Rs 22.3 crore in tax expenses compared to no such expense last year same quarter. The operator added 4,02,000 net subscribers in the quarter and now has a net subscriber base of 14.9 million. Average revenue per user (ARPU) for the quarter was Rs 174. 

Jawahar Goel, chairman and managing director, Dish TV, said: “Fiscal 2017 started on an optimistic note for the Indian pay DTH industry. While the Delhi High Court is likely to take up hearing of the digitisation phase III matter in August this year, cable operators may have no option than to digitise remaining analog cable networks as the central government gears up to auction 700 MHz spectrum to telecom operators.”

Expressing his views on other regulatory overhangs, Goel, said: “An industry favourable resolution of the DTH licence fee matter should go a long way in ensuring non-discrimination among various distribution platforms in the country. We are also hopeful of a just and logical outcome of the currently debated TRAI consultation paper on Interconnection Framework for Broadcasting TV Services Distributed through Addressable Systems.”