DTH
Malaysian media baron Ananda Krishnan passes on
MUMBAI: Another media baron passes into the great beyond. Malayasian billionaire Ananda Krishnan who set up the successful pay TV platform Astro in Malaysia and established satellite operator Measat passed away on 28 November at the age of 86.
Ananda was known to be close to Mahathir Mohamad who was Malaysia’s prime minister from 1981 to 2003 and 2018 to 2020. He persuaded him to build the famed Petronas twin towers in Kuala Lumpur.
Ananda was the founder and chairman of Usaha Tegas, as well as the founder of Yu Cai Foundation. He also helped transform telecom firm Maxis into one of the largest operators in the country. He helped finance Bob Geldof’s Live Aid concert in the eighties. He was ranked Malaysia’s sixth-richest person and 671 wealthiest person globally in 2024, with an estimated net worth of $5.1 billion, according to Forbes.
In India, Ananda unsuccessfully invested an estimated $7 billion to set up telco Aircel which filed for bankruptcy protection in 2018.
Ananda had three children, including his only son, Ven Ajahn Siripanyo who is a Buddhist monk.
May he Rest in Peace!
Astro Malaysia made the following post on its website:
Astro Malaysia Holdings Berhad (Astro) mourns the loss of our shareholder, Ananda Krishnan Tatparanandam, on 28 November 2024, whose unparalleled contributions shaped the landscape of Malaysia’s media, telecommunications, and entertainment industries.
Group Chief Executive Officer Euan Daryl Smith expressed profound sorrow on behalf of Astro, stating: “Mr Ananda Krishnan’s vision went beyond creating a company; he created a purpose. Through Astro, he touched lives—by providing jobs, nurturing talent, and fostering a shared sense of joy through the power of entertainment. His enduring commitment to excellence and humanity will continue to inspire us as we carry forward his legacy. We extend our heartfelt condolences to his family during this time of loss.”
We join the nation in honoring a remarkable individual whose contributions will forever be etched in Malaysia’s history. Our deepest condolences go out to the family during this difficult time.
We humbly request that the family’s privacy be respected as they mourn their loss.”
(Pix courtesy Scott Jordan)
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.
