Public shareholders collectively demand board revamp, says Dish TV CEO

The public shareholders collectively own 95.96 per cent of the shares as of December 2024, as per BSE, while the promoter group, Essel Group, holds 4.04 per cent

Public shareholders of Dish TV have collectively demanded the reconstitution of its board, a top executive of the company said, stressing that the ongoing dispute between promoters and shareholders of the company will not impact the company’s operations.

 

“Any possibility is never ruled out,” Manoj Dobhal, chief executive officer (CEO), Dish TV, told Business Standard on the sidelines of Content India Summit 2025 in Mumbai, addressing if there is a possibility for shareholders to take over the company. “We have a task cut out in our hand to build what we can build operationally, and that is what we are focusing on. I think these things have been there for more than three to four years, and it has not impacted us till now. In fact, from what little I know, things are only improving day by day,” he said. He further added that he does not expect the dispute to impact the company in any way in the future.

 

 

In the last three years, Dish TV investors have ousted more than 20 directors over the demand for a special meeting. In December last year, shareholders of Dish TV rejected the proposal to appoint two independent directors to its board.

 

The public shareholders collectively own 95.96 per cent of the shares as of December 2024, according to BSE, while the promoter Essel Group has 4.04 per cent of the shares.

 

For the company’s expansion plans, Dobhal said that the company is coming out with several initiatives to create a parallel revenue stream in the financial year 2025-26 (FY26). With Watcho, its OTT aggregation platform, expected to become a profitable business unit in the coming months, Dish TV will be ramping up its investment for the platform.

 

“Through Watcho, we will go through a route of content creators getting access to my platform, and that content remaining exclusively with me,” he added.

 

This initiative will be based on a revenue-sharing model.

 

“We don't want to get into the production side of it (on original content). There are a lot of content creators who are really producing some riveting, compelling, and relatable content today, but they are not finding the platform where to monetise it. So, we are giving them a platform to take it to the masses. A soft launch will be done this month itself,” he explained.

 

He also said that the company has hours of content lined up, which stand-alone OTTs do not have today.

 

Dobhal said that there is also a big opportunity for the Indian content to grow a base in the international market. In line with this, last year, Dish TV had announced a collaboration with UK-based C21 Media to launch a trade event, Content India, to position India as a global content powerhouse.