Advanced Television

Indian telco threat to DTH

August 20, 2019

By Chris Forrester

Reliance-owned Jio Infocomm is a spectacular success. It announced its 4G service in December 2015 and launched in September 2016. It won its first 50 million subs within 83 days, topped 100 million by February 2017. At June 30th this year it achieved a subscriber base of 331 million.

Jio is now tapping into that loyal following and will launch its Jio-Forever fibre package which includes a free HDTV or 4K LED smart TV as part of its welcome package. The service launches on September 5th, although subscribers will have to pay a year’s fee up front.

Investment bank Macquarie Research said JioFibre’s offer is a game-changer that poses considerable threat of churn for urban-focussed DTH and cable TV distributors like Tata Sky, Airtel Digital TV and Siti.

Jio’s TV bundles – and their costs – will be unveiled shortly but are expected to require a deposit of 4000-6000 Rupees (about $56-$84) and around 7000-8000 Rupees annually.

Categories: Articles, Broadcast, DTH/Satellite, Telco