MUMBAI: Managing director of Dish TV Jawahar Goel, on Wednesday, allayed fears of consumers, saying there was no question of cable and DTH prices increasing due to the TRAI tariff order. According to him, there has been a reduction in the bills of consumers who have moved to the new regime.
“There have been rumours that cable bills will go up by 5-6 times. There is absolutely no truth to this. Bills of those subscribers (Dish TV or other DPOs) that have migrated to the new regime have in fact reduced. If you drop channels that you don’t watch, then your bill will further reduce. There is no question of bills increasing,” he stated.
Goel drew a parallel with the telecom business to suggest that a radical change of this nature is bound to benefit the consumers.
“Earlier in the telecom business, call rate was Rs 16 per minute. Today it isn’t even 10 paisa per minute. In the new tariff regime, you will only pay for channels you opt for,” he said.
The Dish TV promoter also hit out at those spreading rumours with regards to the new tariff order.
“Consumers should not fall for rumours and speculation. Those who feel threatened due to the new regulation are the ones fuelling these rumours and trying to mislead the consumers,” Goel highlighted.
On Tuesday, Dish TV reported profit after tax (PAT) of Rs 152.69 crore for the quarter ended 31 December 2018 (Q3 2019, quarter under review) as compared to loss of Rs 168.29 crore in the corresponding year ago quarter and a profit of Rs 19.73 crore in the immediate trailing quarter Q2 2109. These PAT numbers were boosted by certain income tax adjustments of prior years.
Dish TV and Videocon d2h were merged on March 22 2018 and hence Q1 2019 was the first full reporting quarter for the merged entity.
Subscription revenue declined 2.1 percent q-o-q in Q3 2018 to Rs 141.26 crore as compared to Rs 1,453.6 crore in Q3 2018. Advertisement revenue for the quarter under review increased 26.2 percent y-o-y to Rs 30 crore from Rs 23.8 crore.
“I am glad that all opposition to the tariff order has now finally been put to rest. We continue to strongly believe that the regulation should minimise discriminatory pricing by ensuring a level playing field between cable and DTH platforms and should be beneficial for the entire industry thus leading to higher earnings going forward,” Goel said.
