Festive season brings cheer to DTH firms

The festive season lit up sales numbers of direct-to home (DTH) television service providers, with nearly two million subscribers added in a month.

This is nearly double the number of monthly acquisitions recorded in the six-operator sector in the first half of the year.

"October has been a bumper month. In the first five days of November, the industry added 100,000 subscribers every day, which in itself is a record. The adaptation of DTH technology is shoring up, with penetration increasing both in urban and rural areas," said Salil Kapoor, chief operating officer, Dish TV.

Airtel Digital TV, which accounted for one of every four connections sold in the period, saw a little over 60 per cent sales coming from outside the top 300 towns. Their reported subscriber base is now 4.2 million. DTH operators had announced a slew of price cuts at the onset of the festive season to attract consumers.

Dish TV, which had on offer a value pack at Rs 990 for two months of content and an 'e-platinum' pack at Rs 1,490 for four months of content (packages include installation charges), added over half a million subscribers. It has 8.8 million subscribers.

Kapoor said, "In the first week of November, we had an incremental share of 40 per cent of the market. The competition in the industry is working in favour of consumers. The festive offers played a strategic role in converting fence-hitters and attracting subscribers."

Umesh Rao, chief marketing officer, Reliance Big TV, concurred. "Our sales jumped three-fold during the festive season. We have a subscriber base of over three million at present," he said.

Videocon D2H, which had launched set top boxes (STBs) for Rs 888, as a special offer for the festive season, added 500,000 customers in October.

Customers subscribing to the offer availed of a Videocon D2H STB, bundled with a month's content worth Rs 292.

A senior executive at Airtel Digital TV informed, "The festive season has been an inflection point for the DTH industry. With a packed sports calendar culminating with the 2011 World Cup, the growth momentum is expected to continue in the coming months."