India’s Telecom Regulatory Authority (TRAI) has reported that the country’s DTH operators have seen growth of an additional 4.91 million extra pay-TV subs in the year to March 31st 2019.

TRAI’s Performance Indicator Report states there were now 5 pay DTH service providers in India and they cumulatively served 72.44 million subscribers as on 31st March 2019 and up from the previous quarter-year’s 70.49 million. This is in addition to the subscribers of the free DTH services of public broadcaster Doordarshan.

TRAI said that its analysis of quarterly growth in the DTH sector in terms of the net active subscriber base revealed that during the Q1/FY19 the figures increased from 67.53 million to 69.37 million, during Q2/FY19 there was only a marginal increase of 0.08 million subs to reach 69.45 million subs due. Subsequently, the growth peaked with addition to 1.95 million in Q4FY19 to reach 72.44 million as on March 31st.

Market Share of DTH operators in terms of the percentage of net active subscribers as on March 31st reveals that Dish TV was topping the charts with 40 percent market share (helped by the addition of Videocon d2h). Tata Sky stood at No. 2 with 25 per cent closely followed Airtel Digital TV with 22  per cent. Sun Direct with strong presence in South Market stood at No. 4 with 12 per cent while the ailing Reliance DTH was holding just 1 per cent market share.

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