DTH
Reliance Big DTH to take FTA route under new management?
MUMBAI: Is another free-to-air (FTA) DTH operator pawing to take off in India? If the statements made by the Pantel Technologies (the company that took over the ailing Reliance Big DTH) management in media releases are to be believed, then the answer is in the affirmative.
Yesterday, Sri Adhikari Brothers Television Network and Pantel Technologies announced through a release on the Bombay Stock Exchange that the companies had arrived at an understanding to jointly create a bouquet of over 20 FTA channels comprising diverse genres, such as entertainment, kids, infotainment, mythological, and movies.
The release further stated that “the varied product offering will strengthen the business of Reliance Big TV (RBTV) and will give a leg up to the largest FTA network in India. FTA channels have shown an upsurge with all the leading broadcasters showing a keen interest in the FTA product offering.”
Pantel Technologies CMD Vijendra Singh was quoted in the release as saying: “Our main aim is to develop the entertainment appetite of the rural market and create an alternative India. With our coalition with Sab Group, we will bring together our technological proficiency and their content expertise thereby enabling us to provide good content for rural India, which is what we are committed to for their upliftment.”
Pantel had acquired the entire shareholding of RBTV with the business on an “as-is, where-is” basis. The transaction ensured that all 1.2 million customers of Big TV would continue to enjoy uninterrupted services, the company said in a statement. The deal also ensured continuity of employment for about 500 employees of RBTV.
Attempts to connect with SAB group managing director Markand Adhikari and Singh were not successful.
However, if Indiantelevision.com’s interpretation of the announcement today is correct, then it should prove encouraging for private broadcasters. The Prasar Bharti-owned FTA service FreeDish has been an unmitigated success but its future looks in doubt with conflicting reports appearing about whether the powers that be want to continue providing the slots to private players. According to sources in the public sector Prasar Bharti, minister of information and broadcasting Smriti Irani has put a full stop to the e-auction process as the government wants to populate the FreeDish platform with its own channels.
Also Read: Veecon Media acquires Reliance Big TV
Sab Group, Pantel Tech join hands to launch over 20 FTA channels
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.
