India’s Dish/Videocon DTH forecasts growth
May 31, 2018
By Chris Forrester
India’s giant DTH broadcaster Dish TV, now with the merged Videocon d2h under its belt, says that during the upcoming year it will expand its 450 company-owned service centres throughout the country and 5500 company technicians, and use the staff to make around 1 million home visits every month.
The combined businesses now have a 23 million subscriber base, and some 37 per cent market share. (Prior to the merger Dish TV had 16.1 million subs). The company added a net 250,000 subscribers during the most recent quarter-year ending March 31st.
“It’s time to now put all thoughts to action and deliver what is expected from two leading platforms when they come together. I am happy to share that merger integration across functions has been successfully completed and new roles, responsibilities and key deliverables have been well received by our team,” said Dish CEO Jawahar Goel.
The primary thrust for the technicians and sales offices is to convert viewers from watching – and paying – for Standard Definition images – into HD, and thus an improvement in ARPU.
Goel was speaking following the release of Dish’s end-of-year revenue and profit numbers. The operator also confirmed plans to launch a “fully integrated OTT service enabling time-shift as well as live TV while also on the go.”