Mumbai : Rating agency Crisil said the next two phases of digitisation of television distribution that is expected to extend until 2018 fiscal end would be best so far for all stakeholders in the industry.
Direct-to-home (DTH) operators are expected to garner as much as Rs 3,300 crore, multi-system operators (MSO) Rs 1,500 crore, broadcasters Rs 3,900 crore and government Rs. 6100 crore in taxes, according to Crisil.
“CRISIL estimates that given their already stretched balance sheets and high capital expenditure (capex) requirement in these phases, MSOs will be able to garner only 45% of the incremental digital market in the next two phases of digitisation. The balance will go to DTH service providers,” the report said.
This is in contrast to the previous two phases of digitisation wherein MSOs garnered 67% of incremental digital market together with local cable distributors (LCOs), it added.
Crisil said DTH’s upper hand in ‘cable-dark’ and sparsely populated regions will aid its market growth. “While incremental revenues will be on similar lines for both, profit share will be significantly more for DTH firms as they have complete access to subscription revenues unlike MSOs, which share a large part of their revenues with LCOs,” it added.
The Indian television industry is the second largest television market of the world, after China, with television penetration in the country exceeding 165 million households in 2014, according to ICRA.
