DTH
One Alliance switches off InCablenet over pending dues
MUMBAI: The disconnection virus seems to be spreading in Mumbai. Following ESPN-Star Sports, SET-Discovery One Alliance bouquet of channels has switched off its service to Hinduja’s InCable Network in Mumbai.
Confirming the same to indiantelevision.com, SET-Discovery India president Shantonu Aditya says: “There are two reasons – non-settlement of the outstanding dues of Rs 20 million for the month of March and non-renewal of the agreement contract which expired on 31 March 2003. Actually, we have been giving them signals in good faith for an entire month in the absence of a proper contract,” says Aditya.
InCablenet, in its response has raised the imminent rollout of CAS as its reason for not signing on to a new agreement. A statement issued by InCablenet says: “With a few weeks left for the introduction of the conditional access regime, broadcasters have gone on the warpath with MSOs. Broadcasters have started making a demand for higher connectivity and higher rate per customer, which InCablenet has, in view of the resistance by customers, refused to accept.
The statement also drew attention to the the hearing of public interest litigation tomorrow before Bombay High Court demanding reduction of cable subscription rates, as another reason for not reaching agreement with SET-Discovery.
According to InCablenet, with CAS around the corner, commercial arrangements in a post CAS regime are what need to be discussed.
Aditya, however, dismissed this line of argument saying an agreement has to be in place because services are being rendered and it is not possible to function in the absence of a formal contract.
Aditya confirms that the two parties failed to reach a mutually acceptable figure as far as the disputed amount (of Rs 20 million) was concerned. “We are hopeful that the issue will be resolved soon. Despite repeated assurances, we haven’t received payments – which are actually ground collections. We believe that the issue of under-declarations is still unresolved,” says Aditya.
Aditya, however, mentioned that Incable Network had settled all the previous dues. He added that the representatives of both the affected parties have been conducting talks and have had several discussions.
The One Alliance team has also prepared itself for piracy related problems and illegal stealing of signals. “Copyright laws have been strengthened in recent times,” Aditya says.
Speaking of piracy, an ESPN official has filed charges in three different police stations in Mumbai alleging theft of the ESPN Star Sports signals.
In turn InCablenet COO Rajiv Vyas and vice-president (operations) Manoj Motwani, have obtained anticipatory bail from a sessions court in Mumbai. The ESPN official, Prakash Shinde, in his FIRs, filed in Mumbai’s Ghatkopar, DN Nagar and MIDC-Andheri police stations last week, has said InCablenet was tapping signals from neighbouring operators in violation of Section 51 (a) and (b) of the Copyright Act.
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.
