Airtel CEO upbeat on DTH biz in medium term

Airtel, which added about 485,000 customers in Direct-to-Home (DTH) television segment and logged a sequential revenue growth of just under 5 per cent, said it is now number two player in the DTH space. Its Digital TV services customer base stood at 1.78 crore as on December 2020.

“In fact, one of the highlights of this business is its competitive and consistent performance. We believe, we have outstripped all other players in terms of revenue growth. We also believe on a like-to-like basis, we are now clearly the number two player in the DTH industry,” Vittal said in an investor call post Q3 results announcement by Bharti Airtel recently.

On the outlook for DTH business, Vittal said the structure of the industry still made it “attractive” in the medium to long term. “...the price structure in India on the linear television side is very, very low when compared to most of the markets,” he said. The upside opportunity to convert from cable, is high. “The price structure is such that it’s a small amount to pay to get channels that you may still want to consume along with streaming services,” Vittal said.

Also, streaming services are still a niche industry in India, and DTH segment, continues to hold promise in the medium term.