DTH
Q3-2015: Dish Network net income up 34.2%; ARPU up 2.7%; subscriber base down
BENGALURU: Dish Network Corporation reported revenue totalling $3.73 billion for the quarter ending 30 September, 2015 (current quarter, Q3-2015), compared to $3.68 billion for the corresponding period in 2014. Subscriber related revenue increased to $3.7 billion from $3.65 billion in the year-ago period.
Net income attributable to Dish Network totalled $196 million for the current quarter, compared to net income of $146 million from the year-ago quarter. Diluted earnings per share for Q3-2015 were $0.42, compared with $0.31 during Q3-2014.
For Q3-2015 and 9M-2015, Dish has included all of its Sling TV live, linear streaming over-the-top Internet-based television services in the company’s total Pay-TV metrics, including in the Pay-TV subscriber, Pay-TV ARPU and Pay-TV churn rate numbers set forth below. Sling TV subscribers are included net of disconnects.
In the current quarter, Dish activated approximately 751,000 gross new Pay-TV subscribers, compared to approximately 691,000 gross new Pay-TV subscribers in Q3-2015. Net Pay-TV subscribers declined approximately 23,000 in Q3-2015, compared to a loss of approximately 12,000 in the third quarter of 2014.
The company closed Q3-2015 with 13.909 million Pay-TV subscribers, compared to 14.041 million Pay-TV subscribers at the end Q3-2014. Pay-TV ARPU for the third quarter totalled $86.33, compared to the year-ago period’s Pay-TV ARPU of $84.39. Pay-TV subscriber churn rate was 1.86 per cent versus 1.67 per cent Q3-2014.
Dish claims that its added approximately 13,000 net broadband subscribers in the current quarter, bringing its broadband subscriber base to approximately 608,000.
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.
