India’s Bharti Airtel DTH adds 479,000 subs
July 30, 2018
By Chris Forrester
India’s hugely competitive DTH pay-TV market shows no sign of slowing. The latest operator to declare numbers is telco Bharti Airtel which has seen is DTH arm add a net 479,000 new subscribers during the three months to the end of June. It is significantly well ahead of the previous quarter’s 230,000 net growth.
The boost means that the broadcaster’s overall subs base has grown 3.4 per cent to 14.6 million. Churn (per month) is also helping, and is down y-o-y from 1.1 per cent to just 0.7 per cent.
ARPU grew marginally by 1 Rupee a month (from R228 to R229, about $3.34).
Airtel DTH currently offers 659 channels and 75 HDTV channels.
During the quarter year, and helping drive the subscriber base, Airtel launched its ‘Airtel Home’ quad-play service, and part of the company’s Project Next initiative and permitting subscribers to have a single bill covering broadband, mobile and DTH and fixed lines. Subscribers signing up get up to a 10 per cent discount on the overall bill.