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Airtel Digital TV slips into operating loss after 4 quarters of profit
MUMBAI: Airtel Digital TV, the direct-to-home (DTH) business of telecom major Bharti Airtel, has slipped into operating loss for the three months through June, after four straight quarters of profit.
The DTH operator‘s operating loss for the fiscal-first quarter was Rs 23 million compared to operating profit of Rs 209 million in the trailing quarter. In the three successive quarters beginning April-June 2011, the company had reported operating profits of Rs 50 million, Rs 116 million and Rs 90 million.
The company has apparently changed the procedure for how it accounts for the content cost.
Airtel Digital TV added 172,000 net subscribers during the quarter ended 30 June 2012, representing 8 per cent growth from the trailing quarter, but monthly churn climbed to 1.7 per cent, from 1.2 per cent.
The company‘s customer base stood at 7.4 net million customers. Market leader Dish TV, the first to launch DTH services in India, has 9.8 million net subscribers while its churn is 1 per cent for the fiscal first quarter (from 1.1 per cent in exit quarter of FY‘12).
Airtel Digital TV‘s ARPU (average revenue per user) stayed flat at Rs 166, higher than Dish TV‘s Rs 156 (despite rising from Rs 151 in trailing quarter).
The company‘s loss before interest and tax jumped 16.49 per cent to Rs 2.26 billion for the first quarter ended 30 June compared to a loss of Rs 1.94 billion in the preceding quarter.
Airtel Digital TV‘s revenue during the quarter remained flat at Rs 3.65 billion, representing a change of 2.56 per cent from the earlier quarter. Revenue for the year-ago period was Rs 2.93 billion.
During the quarter, the company incurred a capital expenditure of Rs 3.24 billion in digital TV services, up from Rs 981 million in the preceding quarter. In the previous fiscal, the capex stood at Rs 3.01 billion.
As of 30 June 2012, Airtel‘s cumulative investment on the digital TV services stood at Rs 35.40 billion, up from Rs 32.98 billion in the preceding quarter. In the corresponding fiscal, the cumulative investments was Rs 29.29 billion.
During the quarter, the company expanded its footprint to 616 districts, up from 609 districts in the earlier quarter, covering 96 per cent of the populace.
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Inshorts Group chief Deepit Purkayastha joins IAB video council for Southeast Asia and India
The co-founder and chief executive of the short-form content platform has been inducted into the IAB SEA+India Video Council, giving India a stronger voice in shaping digital video frameworks
NOIDA: India has long been the world’s most chaotic, multilingual and mobile-first digital market. Now, one of its most prominent short-video executives is getting a seat at the table where the rules are written.
Deepit Purkayastha, co-founder and chief executive of Inshorts Group, has been selected as a member of the IAB SEA+India Video Council for 2026. Run by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, the council brings together senior leaders from Southeast Asia and India to shape standards, best practices and measurement frameworks for the fast-evolving video and digital advertising ecosystem.
The timing is pointed. According to the IAMAI-Kantar Internet in India Report 2025, over 588 million Indians are now consuming short-video content, with growth increasingly driven by rural and non-metro audiences. India’s active internet user base has crossed 950 million, with 57 per cent of users now coming from rural markets. Yet the frameworks that govern how video consumption is measured and monetised were largely designed for single-language, Western markets and have struggled to keep pace with the scale, diversity and complexity of India’s digital landscape.
Purkayastha is no stranger to these debates. He already serves on the AI Council at Marketing and Media Alliance India and as co-chair of the Digital Entertainment Committee at the Internet and Mobile Association of India. His induction into the IAB SEA+India Video Council extends that influence into the global video standards arena.
Inshorts Group sits squarely at the intersection of these forces. Its flagship product, Inshorts, India’s highest-rated short news app, reaches 12 million active users with 60-word news summaries. Its sister platform, Public App, reaches 80 million monthly active users across more than 700 districts and 12 languages, serving communities that most global platforms barely register.
Purkayastha said the opportunity was about building something more representative. “India today sits at the centre of the global video ecosystem, but the frameworks that define how value is created and measured have not always kept pace with the realities of our market,” he said. “Being part of the IAB SEA+India Video Council is an opportunity to contribute to a more representative and future-ready approach, one that accounts for diversity in language, context, and user intent.”
As a council member, Purkayastha will contribute to shaping regional standards across video advertising, measurement and platform governance, with a focus on frameworks that are native to India’s multilingual, mobile-first ecosystem rather than imported from global benchmarks designed elsewhere.
For years, India has been content to play by rules written for other markets. Purkayastha’s induction is a signal that it is done waiting to be consulted and ready to start writing them.
