DTH
RC Venkateish’s top 5 predictions for 2015
MUMBAI: The direct to home (DTH) industry is looking forward to an exciting year ahead. The sector, which saw some improved subscriber numbers and Average Revenue Per User (ARPU), is hoping to improve it further this year, while continuing to add more innovative services to its kitty.
According to The DTH Operators Association president and Dish TV CEO RC Venkateish, the overall additions in subscribers, for all the DTH players in the year 2014, were higher in magnitude of 25-30 per cent than 2013.
While the industry faced some challenges in the previous year, with regards to high taxation and DTH licence fee issue, it hopes to have some clarity on it in 2015.
The year 2014 saw some positive growth in Dish TV, as it regained its share leadership for about last three to four quarters. The DTH operator also launched a significant and tactical product in Zing which has helped it to capitalise in the phase III and IV areas.
Indiantelevision.com asks Venkateish to list down his top five predictions for the year 2015:
• 2015 will be an interesting year. It starts off with the ICC Cricket World Cup, which is a very high profile event. This will give a lot of momentum and boost to all the DTH operators, who could also gain traction in the phase III and IV markets. This is also being supported by developments like the new channel launches and talks of rational regulations coming in to keep the supply prices of high definition (HD) under control, so that’s one reliever.
• The year will also see a few operators showcasing some new technologies like 4K, though it’s still very far away.
• One might also see the launch of online consumption media. This trend has started picking up, but currently is at a nascent stage.
• For Dish TV, we will continue to strengthen the share leadership in all the segments. We will expand Zing to other geographies during the course of the year. We will push new technologies and there will be a couple of new products which will be launched around these new technologies.
• Overall, we go in to the New Year on a very positive note, and with the kind of plans we have, we hope we can sustain the kind of growth we gained in 2014.
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.
