DTH

This consolidation is set to benefit Airtel by expanding its broadband and entertainment business, integrating telecom, broadband, and DTH services into a unified offering

Bharti Airtel will reportedly hold a majority stake of 52-55% while Tata Play's shareholders, including Tata Sons and Walt Disney, will keep 45-48%

Calls for interoperable set-top boxes, infrastructure sharing among broadcasters and telcos

Shift in preference for more flexible digital content options reason for fall

Tata Play cited declining popularity and cost savings for consumers as reasons for the removal of Sony channels, while Sony claims this to be retaliation from the DTH operator

Direct-to-Home operator Dish TV India on Friday reported a marginal narrowing of consolidated net loss at Rs 2.83 crore in the third quarter ended December 23, 2023. The company had posted a consolidated net loss of Rs 2.85 crore in the same quarter last fiscal, Dish TV said in a regulatory filing. Consolidated revenue from operations during the quarter under review stood at Rs 470.27 crore as against Rs 552.09 crore in the year-ago quarter, it added. Total expenses in the third quarter were lower at Rs 471.82 crore as compared to Rs 567.16 crore in the same period a year ago. Dish TV India said it continued to gain incremental subscriber market share during the third quarter. However, due to subscribers shifting between platforms churn rates remained high thus resulting in overall negative net additions during the quarter, it added. "Our new subscriber additions during the quarter were impressive, not only because the numbers were strong but also because none of those added were

Direct-to-mobile has promise

Most operators point out that investing in last-mile access for broadband services makes sense in the top 1,000 cities, where the quality of the fibre is good

D2M is a broadcasting technology capable of transmitting multimedia content to consumers' smartphones without requiring an active internet connection

Leading DTH system operator Tata Play has reported a net loss of Rs 105.25 crore for the fiscal ended March 2023, according to financial data accessed by the business intelligence platform Tofler. The company reported a net profit of Rs 68.6 crore in FY22, as per the data. Its revenue from operations slipped 5.1 per cent to Rs 4,499.19 crore from Rs 4,741.07 crore a year ago. Tata Play (earlier knowns as Tata Sky) is not a publicly listed entity. However, it has earlier this year received approval from the capital market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to raise funds through initial public offerings (IPOs). The total expenses of Tata Play stood at Rs 4,691.25 crore in 2022-23. The total income of Tata Play, a JV between Tata Group and Rupert Murdoch-owned 21st Century Fox, fell 5 per cent to Rs 4,529.97 crore. Its total liabilities declined to Rs 8,658.22 crore in FY23 from Rs 9,198.1 crore in FY22. Its borrowings in FY23 rose to 2,787.35 crores from Rs

Tata Play Binge will offer access to 27 national, regional, and international OTTs in 13 languages

To get around the problem the agency checks the channel list every quarter to figure out the free channels' clients, such as ITC or J&J, that need small-town reach, could be advertising on

Direct-to-Home operator Dish TV will convening an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) on March 3 to seek shareholders' approval for the appointment of four new independent directors. The EGM would be held virtually through video conferencing and other audio-visual means, said a notice by Dish TV. Dish TV's largest shareholder Yes Bank Ltd (YBL) and the promoter family led by its former chairman Jawahar Lal Goel are engaged in a legal battle over board representation in the company. The four independent directors sought to be appointed are Sunil Kumar Gupta, Madan Mohanlal Verma, Gaurav Gupta and Lalit Behari Singhal. The company's board had announced their appointments in December last year, which was the first major appointment after the departure of its former chairman Jawahar Lal Goel. Earlier on December 30, shareholders of Dish TV had rejected a proposal for adoption of audited standalone and consolidated financial statements for FY21 and FY22 in the AGM. YBL, having over 24

Broadcasters have been complaining that the price of TV content has not seen any increase since 2019

IAMAI said in its submission that 'telecommunication' can cover video calls, emails, messages as well as other cloud service providers

The audit will be conducted to ensure that the amount to be submitted to the Centre in the form of the licence fee is "correctly assessed"

Direct-to-Home operator Dish TV India Ltd and four others have settled with markets regulator Sebi a case pertaining to alleged non-disclosure of voting results of the company's Annual General Meeting (AGM) held on December 30, 2021. Apart from Dish TV, its promoter Jawahar Lal Goel, group chief executive Anil Kumar Dua, compliance officer Ranjit Singh and Ashok Mathai Kurien, who was the director of the company, settled the case. These five entities have settled the case after collectively paying Rs 65.34 lakh towards settlement amount, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said in an order. This came after the entities proposed Sebi to settle the alleged violations of regulatory norms through a settlement order, "without admitting or denying the findings". Accordingly, Sebi, in its order passed on Monday, stated "the pending enforcement proceedings for the alleged defaults ...are settled qua the applicants." The regulator received complaints alleging that Dish TV, p

Adoption of FY21 and FY22 financial statements and new statutory auditors not accepted at AGM

The government on Friday capped the number of platform channels on direct-to-home (DTH) services at 5 per cent of the operators' total channel carriage capacity. The operational guidelines in respect of "licence fee", "platform services" and "sharing of infrastructure" for DTH services in India, issued by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB), also bar the platform service channel from sharing content directly or indirectly with any other distribution platform operator (DPO). Platform service channels are programmes transmitted by DPOs exclusively to their own subscribers. The definition excludes Doordarshan and registered television channels as also the foreign channels not registered in India. "The content of the PS to be exclusive to the platform and is not to be shared directly or indirectly with any other Distribution Platform Operator," the guidelines said. The guidelines, which came into effect from Friday, mandate all platform service channels to carry a captio

The telecom industry body was responding to a DOT consultation paper, which aims at reviewing the existing legal and regulatory provisions governing telecommunications