Companies continue to lose revenue as customers tune out of linear TV and take to OTT
Three of the four DTH operators – market leader Tata Play Ltd, Sun Direct TV Pvt. LTD and Dish TV informs an income decrease in India LTD – FY25, while Airtel’s top line of Bhatil Telemedia LTD has grown by 5%.
“Since 2021, the Pay DTH subscriber base has witnessed more than 7 million decreases.” The attractiveness of the optional imaging has shifted its consumer preferences on a wider content. “
Mantha said that this confusion is more evident among the metropolitan markets and the young audience with the strongest personalized entertainment appetite. However, DTH continues to be the main source of entertainment in the Indian countryside.
Tata Play, the board members, TV’s free food and the existence of content on the OTT platforms “head winds and competition difficulties” continues to encounter. The company said its priority is to focus on profitability.
Tata Play, in his report, “Topline perspective, the focus continued to benefit from the sport, long-term products Ringence customers, AI-ML (artificial intelligence and machine learning) for income management and increased average income per user.” He said.
Dish TV said in his annual report because of the income decrease due to “a decrease in Pay-TV subscriber numbers and the average average income per user (ARPU)”.
Since the Covid-19 pandemi, family members have demanded more diverse and personalized content as they found themselves limited to interior. Mantha, unlike traditional television offering planned programming, OTT platforms provide audiences a significant increase in OTT consumption, providing flexibility to monitor the content.
According to Partho Dasgupta, the executive partner, Thoth consultants and former General Manager of Barc India, customers move away from DTH and shift to free online platforms such as DD Free Dish, YouTube or to low -cost advertising supported video (AVOD) services. “Many of them prefer to watch television shows in their flow applications such as Jiocinema, Disney+ Hotstar, Sonyliv and others.
Active Users
According to the Annual Performance Indicators Report of the Indian Telecom Services 2024-25, the number of DTH subscribers who actively pays to 56.92 million in24. This was in addition to the subscribers of Doordarshan’s free DTH services. TATA Play LED with 31.42% market share LED, then Airtel, with 30.2%.
On the other hand, according to the ORMAX OTT mass report, active wage subscriptions were 99.6 million: 2024. The audience universe for video stream in India is currently 547.3 million.
Mantha said that many households have both OTT and DTH services to address different members of the family, but there was an increase in the cord section, and that the DTH subscription numbers further affected.
Hindi General Entertainment Channels (Geceler) are struggling to deal with the audience, and new heroes in fiction cannot echo. According to the media consulting company Ormax, the number of new fiction characters on the top 10 popular list of per month has been constantly falling since 2016 and has reached the lowest level of all time in 2024.
Old characters like Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah ChashmahIt has not emerged since 2017, and it is over again thanks to drawings.
FICCI-YED Media and Tutur Report 2025 also emphasized the wider industrial winds. The linear television revenue fell in the second year in a row, despite the little change of the audience.
Advertising income fell by 6% due to a 10% decrease in advertising volumes and 10% decrease in advertisers in the environment. The subscription income is 3%contracted, free TV and connected TV households, even if it continues to grow, linked to reducing the 6 million salary-tv house.
Packaged Subscriptions
“In response, DTH providers tried the application -based offers in response, and OTT subscriptions have achieved a moderate success in keeping customer bases, Mantha Mantha added.
Airtel’s Xstream set -top box comes with packaged OTT application subscriptions such as Amazon Prime video, Sonyliv and Eros. Dish TV launched OTT platform Watcho. Tata Play offers Tata Play Binge, which has more than 30 OTT platforms on its application and website.
From Dish TV, Watcho offers multilingual and short -shaped content that strongly appeal to younger, technology -enthusiast masses. In addition to OTTS packaging, Airtel launched an internet -based television service with interactive features and optional content. This appeals to increasing demand for flexible and personalized imaging.
According to Dish TV CEO Manoj Dobhal, the focus comes by providing everything they want by customers.
Dobhal said, “Approximately 30% of DTH customers prefer hybrid packages. So they want both DTH and OTT. So these 30% customers, if I hadn’t offered the OTT option, I would have lost the hybrid packages, otherwise I would have lost, Dah Dobhal said.
“FLIQ is another way to keep customers from OTT and Youtube. “He’s already having a lot of traffic, not only Watcho, but also DTH business owners.”
Approximately 60% of Dish TV’s income comes from rural areas and 40% of the urban.
Tata Play, Sun Direct TV and Airtel’s digital TV sent e -mails did not respond.
Rural confidence
Online video consumption continued to grow. The number of digital video viewers increased by about 98% of active smartphones to 15 million or 3%, to 551 million. Video Subscription Income increased by 11% La9,200 Crore underlines the transition to OTT platforms.
Mantha, despite these changes, traditional DTH services, where they continue to serve as a primary source of entertainment in the rural India is deeply settled. This rural trust, payment DTH sector is faced with ongoing challenges, shows that the fall may be more gradual than the city centers, “he said.
To adapt to the changing landscapes, Dish TV’s DTH services focus on regional content, curatoric channel packages and affordable value -added offers.
Tata Play’s income from operations fell La4.109.3 Crore from FY25 LaAccording to the company files made to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, 4,327.07 FY24. Loss after extraordinary elements La428.27 Crore compared to LaCrore in 246.52 FY24.
Dish TV’s income fell La1.567.6 Crore from FY25 La1.856.5 Crore in FY24. Made a loss La487.7 Crore from FY25 La1.966.6 Crore in FY24.
Operating income for the first nine months of Sun Direct TV’s FY25 La938.03 CRORE LaAccording to the maintenance rating report, one year ago, 1,041.80 Crore. Company’s wife La18.69 Crore during this period La3.65 Crore a year ago.
Increased in digital TV business with Airtel’s DTH service increased by 5% La3,060.8 Crore. EBITDA FALLED 1.3% La1.692.1 Crore from FY24.
