DTH
Videocon d2h reports higher EBITDA, revenues, adds 0.2 mn net subs in Q2 FY 2016
MUMBAI: Indian pay TV platform and DTH operator Videocon d2h is slowly but surely getting its act together. At least if one goes by the financials for the quarter ended 30 September 2015 it has filed with Securities Exchange Commission in the US. The company is listed on the US Nasdaq.
It has announced lower net losses, higher subscription and activation revenues, higher EBITDA, and an increase in both gross and net subscribers in the latest quarter as compared to the previous fiscal quarter and Q1 FY 2016.
Net loss for the second quarter of the 2016 fiscal year at Rs 24.6 crore is a 59.9 per cent improvement over the net loss in the second quarter of the 2015 fiscal year which stood at Rs 61.4 core. It is, however, marginally higher than the Rs 24.6 crore loss it suffered in Q1 FY 2016.
It has reported a sales growth in both subscription and activation revenue and revenue from operations to Rs 629 crore (Rs 505 crore previous fiscal quarter – a growth of 24.6 per cent) and Rs 690 crore (Rs 507.30 crore in Q2 FY 2016 – a growth of 20.3 per cent growth) respectively. The comparitive Q1 FY 2016 figures for subscription and activation revenue and overall revenues for Q1 FY 2016 were Rs 599.61 crore and 662.83 crore.
The company notched up higher net subscribers (10.84 million in Q2 FY 2016 vs 9.46 million in Q2 FY 2015). Average revenue per user (ARPU) growth was higher at Rs 205 in Q2 2016 vs Rs 190 in Q2 FY 2015 but stagnated when compared to Rs 205.30 in Q1 FY 2016.
It added 0.20 million net subscribers in this quarter, while adding 0.57 million gross subscribers to end Q2 FY 2016 with 14.27 million gross subscribers.
As a comparitive, the DTH service provider addded 0.61 million gross subscribers and 0.46 lakh net subscribers in Q1-FY 2016.
Churn was higher in Q2 FY 2016 at 1.19 per cent as against 0.85 per cent in the previous corresponding fiscal quarter.
The company’s adjusted EBITDA has also improved 32.3 per cent to Rs 191 crore in the quarter ended 30 September 2015 as against Rs 145 crore for Q2 30 September 2014. This is a 2.50 per cent rise in adjusted EBITDA margin to 27.7 per cent in the latest quarter, despite significant increases in content costs as a percentage of revenue. Videocon d2h has clarified that the adjusted EBITDA is calculated after accounting for impact of its ESOP Plan 2014 which amounted to Rs 2.94 crore. The company’s EBIDTA in Q1-2016 was Rs 187.43 crore (28.3 per cent margin).
Videocon d2h says it began operating under new long term content agreements in the second half of the 2015 fiscal year. Content costs as a percentage of revenue in Q2 FY 2016 stood at 38.1 per as against 34.8 per cent in Q2 FY 2015. Comparitively, content cost as a percentage of revenue in Q1 FY 2016 was 37 per cent.
Subscriber acquisition costs in the form of hardware subsidies were Rs 1,775 per subscriber during the second quarter of the 2016 fiscal year as against Rs 1,793 in Q1 FY 2016.
Commenting on the results, Videocon d2h executive chairman Saurabh Dhoot said, “I am happy to share that we have achieved EBITDA growth of 30.3 per cent in the first half of the current fiscal as against our guidance of 25-30 per cent growth. We are on track to deliver even stronger growth in the second half of this year, in line with the guidance shared earlier. During the quarter, we focused on enhancing our channel offering and added 14 Standard Definition and 4 High Definition channels. We have recently launched two proprietary services, namely d2h Hollywood HD and Darshan. With more than 50 million eye balls we also continue to gain traction on advertising revenue with marque advertisers coming on our platform.”
Speaking on the near term subscriber growth outlook Videocon d2h CEO Anil Khera said, “We estimate around 50 million television homes come under Phase III digitization, of which 24-25 million television homes are already on the digital platform. Thus, the target market under Phase III digitization is the remaining 25-26 million television homes that are currently on analog cable.”
The company has also stated that its estimated market share stands at 21 per cent and it is among India’s fastest growing pay TV platforms.
The Videocon d2h stock was trading at around $9.49 on Nasdaq at the time of writing as against $12.05 at the beginning of 2015.
DTH
Prasar Bharati’s WAVES earns Rs 2.9 crore in first year
Platform scales content, users but monetisation gaps limit revenue growth.
MUMBAI: Big waves, small ripples at least for now. When Prasar Bharati launched its OTT platform WAVES at the 55th International Film Festival of India in November 2024, it pitched a bold vision: a homegrown rival to global and domestic streaming giants, blending video, audio, gaming and commerce into a single digital ecosystem. Five months into FY2024–25, however, the platform’s revenue stands at just Rs 2.90 crore, a figure that underscores the gap between ambition and monetisation.
On paper, WAVES looks anything but modest. The platform has ingested 13,608 titles, totalling 9,495 hours of content, with over 13,000 titles already live. It has streamed more than 575 live events from the Mahakumbh Amrit Snan and the 76th Republic Day parade to the Hockey India League, Kabaddi World Cup and Mann Ki Baat while offering 74 live TV channels and 12 radio channels. With over 10 lakh registered users and more than 200 content partners onboarded, the scale resembles that of a fully operational streaming service rather than a pilot project.
The architecture supporting this scale is equally robust. Built under Prasar Bharati’s Central Archives vertical, WAVES runs on a cloud-based infrastructure with DRM, encryption and an integrated analytics dashboard. It includes dedicated units for content ingestion, quality control, publishing, graphics, marketing and billing, and is distributed across platforms such as OTTplay, Tata Play and BSNL. The offering extends beyond video to include audio-on-demand, e-games and even e-commerce via ONDC integration.
Yet, the numbers reveal a core disconnect. Despite its scale, WAVES generated just Rs 2.90 crore in a market where India’s OTT industry crossed Rs 23,000 crore in 2024. A key bottleneck lies in monetisation infrastructure: subscriptions cannot currently be purchased within the app and must be completed via an external website. In a mobile-first country where over 95 per cent of OTT consumption happens on smartphones, this extra step creates friction that most users are unlikely to overcome.
Ironically, content is not the problem, it is the platform’s biggest strength. Prasar Bharati holds one of the world’s richest broadcast archives, including 45,154 hours of digitised Akashvani programming and 35,723 hours from Doordarshan. For WAVES alone, over 3,800 hours of archival content have been made OTT-ready, including classics such as Ramayan and Shaktimaan, alongside rare cultural recordings and historical broadcasts.
There are early signs that this library holds commercial potential. Revenue from archival content licensing rose sharply to Rs 3.38 crore in FY24, up from Rs 67 lakh the previous year. Meanwhile, free digital platforms continue to drive massive reach, the PB Archives Youtube channel clocked 119.78 million views and added 4,02,000 subscribers in FY2024–25, crossing 1.7 million in total, while DD News has over 5.84 million subscribers.
That, however, presents a strategic dilemma. While free distribution builds scale, it also conditions audiences to expect content at zero cost making it harder to transition to paid models. WAVES, designed as a hybrid AVOD-SVOD platform with advertising and subscription layers, is yet to fully crack this balance.
The broader challenge is not technological but strategic. In an ecosystem dominated by platforms offering seamless payments, aggressive pricing and high-budget originals, WAVES is still bridging the gap between being a content repository and a commercially viable product.
For now, the platform reflects both promise and paradox. It has the scale, the content and the infrastructure but until monetisation catches up, WAVES remains less a revenue engine and more a digital showcase of what India’s public broadcaster could become.
