DTH
India’s active DTH subscriber base to reach 75 million by 2023: MPA
MUMBAI: Even as India continues to remain the most important market for DTH pay-TV in Asia Pacific, active direct to home (DTH) subscribers in the country are projected to touch 75 million by 2023 from 41 million in 2014.
The increase in contribution from high-ARPU (average revenue per user) HD subscribers, upselling of SD subscribers to high-value packs, and a higher uptake of VAS, will bolster industry economics in India, as per a report by Media Partners Asia (MPA).
Additionally, total Asia Pacific DTH pay-TV subscribers grew nine per cent in 2014 to more than 61 million in 2014 while industry revenue grew five per cent to top $9 billion, according to the MPA research.
While India, Malaysia and the Philippines continue to remain strong DTH markets, Indonesia, Korea and Japan are coming under increased pressure.
MPA projections indicate that total Asia Pacific DTH industry pay-TV revenue will grow at seven per cent CAGR to $12.5 billion by 2019 and thereafter grow to reach $15 billion by 2023, with significant upside coming from HD and VoD-driven value added services (VAS).
DTH’s share of total pay-TV subscribers in Asia Pacific will grow from 12 per cent to 22 per cent over the next 10 years. In recent years, DTH has experienced a significant phase of growth in Asia, driven by the expansion of DTH pay-TV in India, Southeast Asia and Korea. However, the growth of broadband, IPTV and OTT is placing a natural limit on future growth while macro concerns and aggressive competition are also challenging.
The Philippines has also emerged as a strong market for DTH growth in recent years, driven by Cignal and Gsat. Total DTH pay-TV subs reached 1.06 million in 2014 and will rise 3x over the next decade with future upside coming from significant HD growth and package upselling, which will help boost ARPUs.
DTH will also play an important role in the growth of pay-TV in Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Vietnam but its growth remains capped in markets such as Indonesia and Thailand. However, in Indonesia there could be significantly more upside if leading operators convert the existing free satellite market to pay-TV (starting with a low cost offer) and programme more premium local pay channels.
In Malaysia, DTH will retain a dominant chunk of the pay-TV market, driven by Astro through HD and DVR services as well as VoD and the emergence of premium vernacular and Asian content, exclusive to the Astro DTH platform.
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.
