Dish TV's share dips below 50%

The overall market share of the country’s largest direct-to-home (DTH) venture Dish TV has dropped below 50 per cent for the first time since its launch in 2003, however, it reported a gross subscriber base of 4.5 million today, up from 3.94 million as on September 30. Industry estimates say that in a five-player DTH market, there are about 9.5 million subscribers and based on these numbers, Dish TV’s market share stands at about 48 per cent.

The other DTH firms with significant subscriber base include Tata Sky (about 3 million), Sun Direct (1.5 million-plus) and Reliance Big TV (about 72 lakh-plus), industry sources said. However, according to a Dish TV statement, the overall subscriber base for the industry is around 8 million and based on that number, they have a 53 per cent marketshare, down one percentage point since September 30.

Dish TV said that it added about 600,000 subscribers in the last 45 days, an increase of 15 per cent over its gross subscriber base for the quarter ended September 30 riding on lower entry-prices of DTH connections and attractive subscription schemes. “Of course, the marketshare will reduce as more players enter the segment. But you have to look at the monthly acquisition of DTH subscribers. And on that parameter, we acquired close to 500,000 subscribers in October alone while the overall acquisition for that month stood at about 900,000,” Jawahar Goel, MD, Dish TV told Business Standard.Commenting on Dish TV’s faster subscriber acquisition rate, Salil Kapoor, COO, Dish TV said: “We had an overwhelming response in October. On a particular date last month, we acquired 41,000 subscribers-a record of sorts for us.” Now, to further expand its subscriber base, Dish TV is looking at various options including the roll-out of its Digital Video Recorder (DVRs) service at competitive price points.