DTH
MIB amends DTH guidelines, directs players to clear dues for fresh licenses
NEW DELHI: The ministry of information and broadcasting (MIB) has made amendments to the existing DTH guidelines that will have a wide-ranging impact on the industry. The circular issued by the ministry mentioned that the existing licensees are required to apply afresh to get a license for providing DTH services. Further, the issue of fresh license to the existing licensees will be subject to their clearing all dues and fulfilling all obligations under the terms and conditions of existing license as well as those arising out of legal cases pending before various courts of law.
The license will be valid for a period of 20 years from the date of issue of wireless operational license by wireless planning and coordination wing of the ministry of communications. License may be renewed by 10 years at a time. However, the license can be cancelled/suspended by the licensor at any time in the interest of the Union of India.
A vertically integrated entity will not reserve more than 15 per cent of the operational channel capacity for its vertically integrated operator. The rest of the capacity is to be offered to the other broadcasters on a non-discriminatory basis.
No entry fee will be charged from the DTH operators holding license on the date of notification of these guidelines.
The licensee will have to submit a bank guarantee from any scheduled bank to the MIB for an amount of five crore rupees for the first two quarters, and, thereafter for an amount equivalent to the estimated sum payable, equivalent to the license fee for two quarters and other dues not otherwise securitised. For existing DTH operators, bank guarantee from any scheduled bank for an amount equivalent to the estimated sum payable, equivalent to the license fee for two quarters and other dues not otherwise securitised. Further, the bank guarantee shall be valid for a year which should be renewed on year-on-year basis in such a manner that the bank guarantee remains valid during the entire license period.
The amended guidelines will come into effect immediately, following the Union cabinet's approval of these amendments last week after a long period of uncertainty over DTH license fee.
Now, the licensee shall pay an annual fee equivalent to eight per cent of its adjusted gross revenue, calculated by excluding GST from gross revenue (GR) as reflected in the audited accounts of the company for that particular financial year. The minimum annual license fee shall be subject to 10 per cent of the entry fee. The license fee is to be paid on a quarterly basis, the quantum thereof to be equal to the actual license fee payable for the preceding quarter. The annual settlement of the license fee shall be done at the end of the financial year. The licensor will have the right to modify the license fee as a fixed percentage of AGR during the validity of license period.
The DTH operator would be permitted to operate platform services (PS) channels i.e. DTH operators' own channels exclusively available to its subscribers, to a maximum of five per cent of its total channel carrying capacity. A one-time non-refundable registration fee of Rs 10,000 per PS channel shall be charged from the DTH operator.
DTH operators willing to share DTH platforms and transport stream of TV channels, on a voluntary basis, would be allowed to do so, wherever technically feasible. The common hardware for their subscriber management system (SMS) and conditional access system (CAS) applications can also be voluntarily shared.
Set-top boxes offered by a DTH Service Provider shall have such specifications as laid down by the bureau of lndian standards (BlS) from time to time.
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.
