DTH
No proposal to reconsider FDI limits in DTH: Prasad
NEW DELHI: Minister for information and broadcasting Ravi Shankar Prasad has said that there is no proposal to reconsider the FDI limits in DTH service.
Replying a question by Kunwar Akhilesh Singh in the Lok Sabha today, the minister said that the companies who have applied for license for providing DTH service are Space TV Pvt Ltd, Mumbai, ASC Enterprises Ltd (letter of intent given) and Essel Shyam Communication Ltd.
Licenses for DTH service will only be granted on fulfilling of laid down eligibility criteria and compliance with various terms and conditions prescribed in this regard.
CENSOR BOARD: The government has decided to extend the engagement of detective agencies to carry out checks in cinema halls to all regional centers of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) in the 10th Plan.
Replying to a question posed by Pawan Kumar Bansal in the Lok Sabha today, Prasad said that with a view to ensuring strict compliance of the provisions of the Cinematograph Act, 1952, the CBFC on a test basis had hired a private agency for carrying out regular checks in cinema halls initially in the four metropolitan cities during the period from 1 May, 2001 to 30 April, 2002.
He said that the agency carried out checks in 1859 theaters in the four metros and registered 31 cases. The number of complaints relating to censorship violations received by the CBFC in various forms in several states and union territories during the year 2000, 2001 and 2002 were 57, 144 and 105 respectively.
ECONOMIC AGENDA: Speaking at another function today, Prasad said that economic reforms in India today form an important component of political agenda. He said the impression that the reforms are elitist and meant for only the upper class of society has to be removed. The domestic reforms are as important as the globalisation process, but the pace is a matter of debate, he said.
Delivering the keynote address at the Annual General Meeting of the American Chambers of Commerce in India today, Prasad said that the scope of Indo-American relations is very large in the geo-political fight against terrorism, civilized democratic behaviour, free press and even in the military context.
He said, a great amount of maturity is coming about in Indo-American relations because of commonality of free society, free media, mutual trust and he hoped these will further develop despite some disagreements.
Prasad said the Indian economy has its inherent strength, which is reflected in its growing foreign exchange reserves’ steady growth rate of over 5 per cent, 50 per cent growth in the software exports, decline in the people living below poverty line from 36 per cent to 27 per cent and containment of inflation rate despite severe drought, the Kargil war and sanctions following the nuclear explosion.
He referred to the great infrastructure thrust and said that 14,000 kilometers of national highways are being constructed at a cost of 5,400 billion rupees, every village is being connected by metalled road, two crore telephones have been installed in last two years as compared to 1.86 crores in the last 50 years and the revolution in the communication and the broadcasting sector.
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.
