BENGALURU: The direct to home (DTH) industry in India is continuing its bloom, if one were to go by the results reported by Bharti Airtel about its Digital TV services (Airtel DTH) for the quarter ended 30 September, 2015 (Q2-2015, current quarter)

Note: 100,00,000 = 100 lakh = 10 million = 1 crore

Airtel’s DTH segment reported 12.9 per cent growth in its revenue for the current quarter at Rs 706.8 crore as compared to the Rs 623.6 crore in Q2-2015. EBIDTA increased 53.2 per cent to Rs 234.3 crore (33.1 per cent margin) as compared to the Rs 152.9 crore (24.4 per cent margin)

The company reported a 10.9 per cent YoY growth in its subscriber base to 105.76 lakh in Q2-2016 as compared to the 95.40 lakh in the corresponding year ago quarter and a 1.6 per cent QoQ growth from 104.12 crore in the immediate trailing quarter. Monthly subscriber churn however increased to 1.3 per cent in the current quarter as compared to 1.1 per cent in Q2-2015 and 0.8 per cent in Q1-2016.

The company reported a slight increase in Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) in Q2-2016 in terms of Indian rupees, but a flat ARPU in terms of the US dollar at $3.5, which means that ARPU in dollar terms declined due to the rise in the price of the dollar in Indian Rupees. ARPU in Q2-2016 increased to Rs 224 as compared to the Rs 220 in Q2-2015 and the Rs 222 in Q1-2016.

Airtel MD and CEO India & South Asia Gopal Vittal said, “Airtel’s revenue growth in India has accelerated to 13.3 per cent in Q2 on an underlying basis, the highest in the last 12 quarters. Our smaller businesses – home broadband, DTH and our business segment all continue to perform strongly. Mobile data revenue has grown by 60 per cent. With the commercial launch of high speed 4G services across 334 towns and roll-out of 3G services in our gap circles, we are now best positioned in the industry to leverage the fast growing data market. On the regulatory front, we welcome the guidelines issued by DOT on spectrum sharing and trading.”

Airtel’s consolidated revenues for Q2-2016 at Rs 23,836 crore grew by 6.6 per cent (4.3 per cent reported Y-o-Y) on an underlying basis, adjusted for India termination rates reduction and Africa tower assets divestment over the corresponding quarter last year. Consolidated mobile data revenues at Rs 3,806 crore grew by 49.8 per cent YoY, uplifted by data traffic growth of 76.3 per cent.

The company says that adjusted for the impact in reduction of termination rates, India revenues growth accelerated to 13.3 per cent YoY (10.3 per cent reported Y-o-Y). On an underlying basis, mobile revenues grew by 12.3 per cent, Airtel business (B2B) by 19 per cent and Digital TV by 22.6 per cent YoY. Mobile data revenue at Rs 2,893 crore registered a growth of 60.3 per cent YoY in India, led by increase in the data customer base by 27.2 per cent and traffic by 69.9 per cent. Data ARPU has moved up by Rs 42 (YoY) to Rs 193 in Q2-2016, led by 35.9 per cent increase in data usage per customer. Mobile Data revenues contribute to 21.5 per cent of Mobile India revenues vis-?-vis 14.5 per cent in the corresponding quarter last year.

According to the company, consolidated EBITDA at Rs 8,265 crore grew by 6.7 per cent YoY with EBITDA margin expanding by 0.8 per cent to 34.7 per cent, driven by India’s margin expansion by 1.6 per cent Y-o-Y. The resultant consolidated EBIT of Rs 4,011 crore represents a YoY growth of 4.1 per cent, impacted by higher spectrum amortisation expense in India post recent auctions.