DTH
Q1-2016: Dish Network reports higher revenue despite subscriber decline on higher ARPU
BENGALURU: US Pay-TV player Dish Network Corporation (DNC) reported 1.7 percent higher year-on-year (YoY) total revenue for the quarter ended 31 March, 2016 (Q1-2016, current) at $3,787.24 million as compared to $3,724.23 million in the year ago quarter. Subscriber related revenue increased 2.2 per cent YoY to $3,775.48 million in the current quarter as compared to $3,693.53 million in Q1-2015. The company lost 139,000 Pay-TV subscribers. Its subscriber base in the current year declined 1 per cent to 13.874 million in the current year as compared to 14.013 million in Q1-2015.
The company reported 2.6 per cent growth in average revenue per user (ARPU) in Q1-2016 to $87.94 from $85.73 in the corresponding year ago quarter. DNC says that increase in Pay-TV ARPU was primarily attributable to the DISH branded Pay-TV programming package price increases in February 2016 and 2015. These increases were partially offset by a shift in DISH branded Pay-TV programming package mix, an increase in Sling TV subscribers and a decrease in premium and pay-per-view revenue. The company says that Sling TV subscribers generally have lower priced programming packages than DISH branded Pay-TV subscribers, and therefore, to the extent that Sling TV subscribers increase, it has a negative impact on Pay-TV ARPU.
DNC’s subscriber churn declined by a single basis point to 1.63 per cent in the current quarter as compared to 1.64 per cent in Q1-2015. DNC added 657,000 gross subscribers in Q1-2016 as compared to 723,000 subscribers in Q1-2015. The company says that its Pay-TV churn rate continued to be adversely affected by increased competitive pressures, including aggressive marketing, bundled discount offers combining broadband, video and/or wireless services and other discounted promotional offers, as well as cord cutting.
DNC reported lower subscriber acquisition costs in the current quarter at $648 per subscriber as compared to $667, or a drop of 2.9 per cent or $19 per subscriber. DNC says that this change was primarily attributable to a decrease in hardware costs per activation. The decrease in hardware costs per activation was driven by a higher percentage of remanufactured receivers being activated on new DISH branded pay-TV subscriber accounts and by a reduction in manufacturing costs related to certain receiver systems
DNC reported 628,000 broadband subscribers in Q1-2016 as compared to 591,000 subscribers in Q1-2015
Net income attributable to DNC increased 10.8 per cent to $389.29 million in the current quarter as compared to $351.49 million in Q1-2015.
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.
