GTPL’s HITS Push, AI Play and Vision for India’s Connected Future

MUMBAI: The television and digital entertainment landscape in India is undergoing a significant transformation, with cable, broadband, HITS, OTT and connected technologies increasingly converging into a unified ecosystem. As operators look beyond traditional distribution models, technology is playing a crucial role in expanding reach, improving economics, enabling data-driven decision-making and creating new opportunities for monetisation. GTPL Hathway Ltd has been at the forefront of this transition, with its GTPL Infinity HITS platform, broadband expansion and digital entertainment offerings forming key pillars of its growth strategy.

In an interaction with Indian Television Dot Com, GTPL Hathway Ltd Senior Vice President Yatin Gupta discusses the evolution of GTPL Infinity, the changing economics of HITS, the role of Return Path Data and AI, and the company’s vision of becoming a technology-led entertainment and connectivity platform. He also shares his views on the changing competitive landscape, GTPL’s five-year vision and the impact of the BARC ratings controversy on broadcasters, distributors and advertisers. Yatin Gupta, in conversation with Indian Television Dot Com.READ ON……

On GTPL Infinity, its evolution as a subscriber platform or wholesale HITS platform.  

GTPL Infinity is designed to evolve simultaneously as an expansive nationwide delivery engine for GTPL’s own subscriber base and a powerful B2B wholesale Headend-in-the-Sky (HITS) platform for independent operators.

The platform is engineered to drive digital equity across India by scaling through a B2B growth strategy empowering independent MSOs as well as LCOs to go live within a 24 hour window with a single dish antenna setup and negligible overhead costs. GTPL is also offering broadband services as well as other services including OTT, innovative VAS services, etc. to enable affiliates better monetisation opportunities.

On HITS economics, its potential to enable GTPL’s expansion into new markets without traditional headends.  

With a flexible model for initial setup costs and negligible overhead costs, GTPL Infinity platform enables small entrepreneurs to start operations in an extremely low time-frame and at low cost. The economics of cable distribution are expected to improve through HITS as even small cable networks of ~100 to 200 households can also yield returns due to lower delivery cost and minimal investment, thereby ensuring commercial viability in villages as well as towns across the length and breadth of India.

About HITS technology, its key advantages over the conventional multi-headend model.  

GTPL Infinity is backed by a world-class green-field teleport located at Ahmedabad delivering around 900 channels including ~100 HD channels. The robust signal delivery mechanism through the Telkom4 satellite ensures consistency and reliability using C-Band which has been proven to be more efficient than Ku-Band. The platform is more efficient and cost-effective than traditional multi-headend models since it enables delivery of 800 channels across India without the expense of traditional telecom infrastructure while preserving the flexibility of regional feeds for various geographies. It is one of the largest C-Band uplink centres in the world, transmitting around 900 channels all over India.

For the downlinking setup, GTPL Infinity just requires a single receiving antenna with minimal setup costs and negligible overhead costs.

On connected set-top boxes, the growing importance of Return Path Data for measurement, advertising and content.  

Return Path Data (RPD) is rapidly gaining ground as an acceptable mode of audience measurement. The technology is not restricted to connected set top boxes. GTPL is already in the process of seeding RPD set top boxes across its areas of operation with linear set top boxes sending limited, anonymised viewership data. We firmly believe in the granular nature of data that can be obtained using RPD will enhance the appeal to advertisers as well as broadcasters to take informed decisions.

About digital entertainment, GTPL’s approach to integrating linear TV, OTT and broadband.  

GTPL has been a frontrunner in adopting the best technologies from around the world. “GTPL Buzz”, our customer facing app, as well as the GTPL website are the primary customer interfaces built for handling all the available GTPL services. The app and website have been developed keeping the singular objective of enabling customers to conveniently manage all their services for renewals/upgrades/etc., access content through OTT offerings as well as live TV channels, search for content & subscription packages, create and manage all their query/request/complaint processes. GTPL has also built automated modes of communication through WhatsApp and chatbots on the app and website.

• On AI at GTPL, its biggest impact across operations, customer service, content and advertising.

The use of AI within GTPL is currently spread across its network operations, customer communication modes for efficient 24X7 customer service as well as for content discovery. We are progressing rapidly towards enabling advertisers to target specific geographic, programmatic and further customer segments.

About competition, the shift from cable versus DTH to connected entertainment.  

The competition for eyeballs is now all pervasive and cannot be restricted to any specific platform. DTH, Broadband, streaming platforms, digital modes (including You Tube, Instagram, etc.) as well as AR/VR/XR and gaming are constantly competing for the viewer’s attention. Advertisers are looking for the best value for the money that they spend while subscription business seems to be the only consistent source of revenue for platforms and broadcasters. Making a simple distinction between all the modes is increasingly becoming difficult. However, linear TV still holds its position with strong inroads into consumer homes, offering access to a massive ~750 million viewers across India, daily time spent of more than 5 hours, translating to unmatched impressions across day parts and geographies.

On GTPL’s future, its evolution into a cable, broadband or technology-led entertainment company.  

GTPL has re-imagined itself over the past few years and has transformed into a technology-led entertainment and connectivity company with the stated objective of offering customers a unified access to all services related to “Entertain & Connect”. This ethos is also underlined by the brand positioning itself.

About GTPL’s five-year vision, its ambitions and the technology that will drive them.  

Response: In the next 5 years,we wantGTPL to be known as a Technology-led company which has made Pan India availability of entertainment and connectivity possible and plays a major role in inclusiveness of entertainment and connectivity even in remote, difficult and dark terrain/areas of india. In 5 years, GTPL will be serving entertainment and connectivity to large number of customers in Urban as well as Rural areas across the length and breadth of India. The Headend in the Sky (HITs) and Fibre to the Home (FTTH) technology will play a major role to achieve the same.

On the BARC controversy, its impact on broadcasters, distributors and advertisers, and possible industry solutions.  

Response: As things stand, the suspension of ratings for nearly 2 months has affected the entire industry.

The broadcasters are facing uncertainty in the festival season with advertisers holding on to their budgets in the absence of rating mechanism and evaluating a shift to other medium. New programming is being kept on hold till ratings are visible again since monetisation is an issue without ratings. The smaller free-to-air broadcasters may eventually have to look at cutting their own costs to cope with loss of advertising revenue or eventually shut operations.

The licenced distribution platforms (DTH/IPTV/MSO/HITS) are also looking at mounting pressure in an environment where they are the only stakeholders in the entire industry who are overly regulated while other platforms like DD Freedish, OTT, FAST, etc. run amok without any regulatory oversight.

Advertisers are uncertain with no credible source of viewership measurement available for close to 2 months. BARC itself has lost some of its credibility due to its own flip-flop stand on the effect of landing page viewership on the ratings by earlier claiming that it had addressed the issue as far back as 2020, and contradicting their own stand in 2026 during the proceedings in the Kerala High Court by claiming that landing page viewership is skewing the overall data.

An ideal situation would be for the Government to let things rest and let market forces decide, in line with its stand on FAST services, OTT and digital medium, where the platform is not bound by any regulations and is not restricted from using any of the available means to monetise. The best content will get viewership regardless of availability on any channel while, conversely, being available on a landing page does not actually guarantee viewership if the content is not attractive to the viewers.