With mounting losses plaguing DTH operators, Tata Sky and Dish TV, both the players have now resorted to charging carriage fee from new channels for shoring up their revenues.
According to industry sources, the two players have already made an estimated Rs 20-25 crore from the plethora of new channels that bank on them for quick access to a huge subscriber base. Says Dish TV managing director Jawahar Goel: ”I agree carriage fee is being charged by the DTH players. I believe Dish TV would be able to earn up to Rs 50 crore this year by charging carriage fee.” He added that Dish TV expects to earn about Rs 100 crore by next year, which the company believes will help balance its losses.
Analysts believe that with three new DTH players launching their services, the DTH subscriber base is going to expand further. This, in turn, will help broadcasters have access to a larger subscriber base. Since content is delivered directly to the consumer, the fear of under-reporting of subscribers to mint money is also thwarted. “Like the cable industry, DTH players will have to bank on both carriage fee and subscription fees to become profitable in the long run,” said a media analyst with a consulting firm.
Says Tata Sky MD Vikram Kaushik: “We have a limited capacity and we can carry a fixed number of channels. But the number of channels is growing everyday. Hence, we have started charging a carriage fee to accommodate channels that are not already on our platform. Also, if a new channel wants instant access to our 2 million subscriber base, we charge a carriage fee from that broadcaster.”
DTH cos hope to break even with carriage fee- Media-Media / Entertainment -News By Industry-News-The Economic Times
According to industry sources, the two players have already made an estimated Rs 20-25 crore from the plethora of new channels that bank on them for quick access to a huge subscriber base. Says Dish TV managing director Jawahar Goel: ”I agree carriage fee is being charged by the DTH players. I believe Dish TV would be able to earn up to Rs 50 crore this year by charging carriage fee.” He added that Dish TV expects to earn about Rs 100 crore by next year, which the company believes will help balance its losses.
Analysts believe that with three new DTH players launching their services, the DTH subscriber base is going to expand further. This, in turn, will help broadcasters have access to a larger subscriber base. Since content is delivered directly to the consumer, the fear of under-reporting of subscribers to mint money is also thwarted. “Like the cable industry, DTH players will have to bank on both carriage fee and subscription fees to become profitable in the long run,” said a media analyst with a consulting firm.
Says Tata Sky MD Vikram Kaushik: “We have a limited capacity and we can carry a fixed number of channels. But the number of channels is growing everyday. Hence, we have started charging a carriage fee to accommodate channels that are not already on our platform. Also, if a new channel wants instant access to our 2 million subscriber base, we charge a carriage fee from that broadcaster.”
DTH cos hope to break even with carriage fee- Media-Media / Entertainment -News By Industry-News-The Economic Times