MUMBAI: The Telecom Regulatory and Authority of India in its 2019 September-end quarter report has shown a marginal growth in the broadcasting and cable TV services with respect to the number of private satellite TV channels permitted by the government and pay TV channels as reported by broadcasters.
TRAI in its performance indicator report has mentioned that there has been continuous growth in the number of private satellite TV channels subject to the government’s approval in the last five quarters.
It reported that a total number of 910 private satellite TV channels have been permitted by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) for uplinking only/downlinking only/uplinking and downlinking both compared to 851 channels in the same quarter of 2018.
With respect to quarterly growth in the number of satellite Pay TV channels, TRAI reported at least 330 pay channels, of which 232 SD and 98 HD Pay TV channels compared to 313 pay channels, of which 216 SD and 97 HD Pay TV channels in the same quarter of 2018.
As the country achieved 100 per cent digitisation of Cable TV network, TRAI said, “This is a stupendous achievement making India as the only large country where 100 per cent digitisation of cable network has been achieved through mandatory regulations.”
Out of top four Cable TV networks, Siti Networks has topped the chart with over 91 lakh subscribers , whereas DEN Networks stood at the fourth position with 43 lakh subscribers, TRAI report said.
Meanwhile, GTPL Hathway and Hathway Digital had a tough fight for the second and third spot with difference of few thousands of subscribers, both had 53 lakh subscribers in September ended quarter.
The report said that there are total 1,606 Multi System Operators (MSOs) registered with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB), of these 1,143 MSOs are operational. It further added, there are 12 MSOs & 1 HITS (Head in the Sky) operators who have subscribers base over a million.
TRAI while mentioning about Direct-To-Home (DTH) services’ growth said that the DTH service has displayed a phenomenal growth and in all there four pay DTH providers in India.
According to the report, Pay DTH has attained total active subscriber base of around 69.30 million at the end of September quarter compared to 69.45 million in the same quarter of 2018.
Tata Sky and Dish TV locking the horns for first and second position in market share, the latter has 31.61 per cent subscribers base and former 31.23 per cent. Whereas, Airtel being at the third position has subscribers base of 23.39 per cent and Sun Direct has 13.8 per cent.
