Bharti Airtel on Wednesday said it is in talks with Tata Group for a potential merger of their respective DTH operations. The two players have been in discussion for the merger of Bharti Telemedia and Tata Play for some time now. This comes at a time when the DTH industry is battling a dwindling subscriber base amidst heightened competition from OTT players.
“Bharti Airtel Ltd and Tata Group are in bilateral discussions to explore a potential transaction to achieve a combination of Tata Group’s Direct To Home business housed under Tata Play Ltd, with Bharti Telemedia Ltd, a subsidiary of Airtel, in a structure acceptable to all parties,” Airtel said in a regulatory filing.
Tata Play is the leading DTH player in the country with 19 million active subscribers. Airtel Digital TV currently has a base of 15.8 million subscribers and had earlier this month said it added 29,000 subscribers in the December quarter. The company’s DTH subsidiary posted revenue of ₹761 crore, down about 3 per cent year-on-year.
“We continue to gain customer market share with a simplified pricing structure, a market-specific strategy and differentiated converged offerings. During the quarter, we partnered with Glance and launched a platform allowing customers to experience Glance TV through Airtel Xstream devices powered by Android TV OS,” the telecom major said in its earnings release of Q3FY25.
As of September 2024, India’s pay DTH subscriber base stood at 59.91 million, down from 62.17 million subscribers in June 2024, as per data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. Currently there are four pay DTH players in the country, including Dish TV and Sun Direct. DD Free Dish is Prasar Bharati’s free DTH service. The industry is at loggerheads with the government on the current regulatory licensing regime. TRAI has recommended that licensing fee for the DTH industry should be slashed to 3 per cent of Adjusted Gross Revenues from the current 8 per cent.