NCLT approves Dish TV-Videocon D2h merger, to have subscriber base of 27 mn

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The National Company Law Tribunal today approved merger of satellite TV service providers Dish TV and Videocon D2h, paving the way for creation of country's largest direct-to-home service provider.

"Dish TV India Limited is glad to announce that the Mumbai Bench of Hon'ble National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), at a hearing held today has approved the scheme of arrangement amongst Videocon D2h Limited and Dish TV India Limited and their respective shareholders and creditors," Dish TV said in a regulatory filing.

The merged entity would have a subscriber base of over 27.2 million, creating the largest DTH service provider in the industry.

Dish TV has an active subscriber base of 15.5 million, while that of Videocon d2h stands at around 12.2 million. The DTH industry has around 62 million active subscribers.

The merged entity will be renamed as Dish TV Videocon Ltd. The total revenue of Dish TV and Videocon d2h was Rs 5,915.8 crore on a pro-forma basis for the fiscal ended March 31, 2016.

At present, out of Dish TV's 15.5 million subscriber base, around 35 per cent are from top 100 cities and the rest 65 per cent are from small towns and rural markets.

Dish TV CEO Arun Kapoor has said that the company is expecting the average revenue per user (ARPU) of the DTH industry to grow over two-folds in the next five years to Rs 450-500.

"ARPU would increase to Rs 450-500 in the next five years from the current industry average of Rs 150-160. This would be primarily driven by growth in number of HD channels, value added services on DTH platform and implementation of DAS," Kapoor said.

According to him, the DTH industry, which has players such as TataSky, Sun Direct, Airtel digital TV, Reliance Digital, has a current growth rate of 10 to 12 per cent.