DTH
Dish TV asks Yes Bank to get MIB go-ahead on its share acquisition
MUMBAI: Last Friday, YES Bank informed the stock exchanges that it had acquired 24.19 per cent stake in direct-to-home (DTH) operator Dish TV India Ltd. The latter said on Monday that the disclosure filed by the bank regarding the acquisition contains certain incorrect facts.
Moreover, it has highlighted another important aspect as per DTH License guidelines which clearly prohibit any change in equity structures of licensee company without prior approval from the ministry of information & broadcasting (MIB). Hence, it has stated that the acquisition of shares by Yes Bank without the ministry’s consent is against the DTH guidelines and has requested Yes Bank to obtain the green signal from the MIB prior to effecting their transfer.
"We would like to mention that your statement, ‘shares acquired on invocation of pledge subsequent to default/breach of terms of loan to Dish TV India Limited’ is an incorrect statement," Dish TV said in a filing to the BSE.
It also clarified that as on the date of the communication, the DTH platform was not in default of any payment obligations to Yes Bank under the financing facility availed from the lender.
“Further, you are also well aware that ‘no shares have been pledged by the promoters of Dish TV or any other entity for the loans availed by Dish TV from Yes Bank Ltd. Therefore, there cannot be any question of invocation of any pledged shares in relation to the loans availed by Dish TV from Yes Bank,”’ the DTH company's official added in the note filed with the BSE yesterday.
The bank had earlier in a note to the exchange informed that it had acquired 44,53,48,990 equity shares having a nominal value of Re 1 per share. “Shares have been acquired pursuant to invocation of pledge of the shares subsequent to default/breach of terms of credit facilities sanctioned by Yes Bank to Essel Business Excellence Services Ltd, Essel Corporate Resources Private Ltd, Living Entertainment Enterprises Private Ltd, Last Mile Online Ltd, Pan India Network Infravest Ltd, RPW Projects Private Ltd, Mumbai WTR Private Ltd,” Yes Bank had said.
Dish TV has also requested Yes Bank to issue corrigendum to its earlier statement and inform the stock exchanges of the same.
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.
