Cable TV
Mumbai-based companies claim to launch India’s first indigenous STBs
MUMBAI: Even as several multi system operators have announced tie ups with global conditional access companies and vendors for imports, a few Indian set top manufacturing companies have announced plans to launch their products and capitalise on the huge opportunity to go global.
Broadband Pacenet India has announced that its set-top boxes are highly sophisticated indigenous “home genies” that include features such as a peoplemeter and ethernet output (to enable Internet surfing).
Another Mumbai-based company Telenext Convergence has also announced the launch of an indigenous set top box (STB) in joint collaboration with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT).
Six persons from the Kanwal Rekhi School of Information Technology at IIT and a team of 26 engineers from Bangalore based VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration) have worked for over two years to produce this indigenous set-top box for Telenext. The STB will be priced at Rs 3,500 and the organisation is in talks with MSOs and cable operators, as consumers cannot directly buy it, as the encrypted smart card of their cable operators may not match this.
Broadband Pacenet India CEO S Ravindran says that their advanced STBs (rather ‘home genies’) will be economically priced around the same level of Rs 3,500. ETC Networks JS Kohli says that he expects penetration to touch 50-60 per cent levels if the current “pay channels” remain “pay”.
Experts say the primary issue will relate to the smart-card user identification elements such as the public and private keys. “Pacenet’s STBs have RSA data security for enhanced security. The 128-bit configuration will take 50 years to crack whereas the 1024-bit configuration is almost impossible to crack. Pacenet home genies have the latter,” says Ravindran.
Ravindran goes on to add: “Our ‘home genies’ will have elements such as RSA 1024-bit; DES (Digital Encryption System) and AES (advanced encryption systems); with peoplemeter facilities. We have plans to get these STBs certified by companies such as Business Proton and Tata Consultancy Services and then sell them in the global markets.”
MUMBAI: When margins wobble, liquidity talks and in Q3 FY25-26, cash did most of the talking. Den Networks Limited closed the December quarter with consolidated revenue of Rs.251 crore, marginally higher than the previous quarter but down 4 per cent year-on-year, even as profitability stayed resilient on the back of strong cash reserves and disciplined cost control.
Subscription income softened to Rs.98 crore, slipping 3 per cent sequentially and 14 per cent from last year, while placement and marketing income offered some cheer, rising 15 per cent quarter-on-quarter to Rs.148 crore. Total costs climbed faster than revenue, up 7 per cent QoQ to Rs.238 crore, driven largely by higher content costs and operating expenses. As a result, EBITDA dropped sharply to Rs.13 crore from Rs.19 crore in Q2 and Rs.28 crore a year ago, pulling margins down to 5 per cent.
Yet, the bottom line refused to blink. Profit after tax stood at Rs.40 crore, up 15 per cent sequentially and only marginally lower than last year’s Rs.42 crore. A healthy Rs.57 crore in other income helped cushion operating pressure, keeping profit before tax at Rs.48 crore, broadly stable quarter-on-quarter despite the tougher cost environment.
The real headline-grabber, however, sits on the balance sheet. The company remains debt-free, with cash and cash equivalents swelling to Rs.3,279 crore as of December 31, 2025. Net worth rose to Rs.3,748 crore, while online collections accounted for 97 per cent of total receipts, underscoring strong cash discipline across operations, including subsidiaries.
In short, while Q3 showed signs of operating strain, the financial backbone remains solid. With zero gross debt, steady profits and a formidable cash war chest, the company enters the next quarter with flexibility firmly on its side proving that in uncertain markets, balance sheet strength can be the best growth strategy.
