Hyderabad : The undivided state of Andhra Pradesh (including newly formed Telangana) is the leading contributor to the overall Indian C&S homes with an average of 11.7% of all India Cable & Satellite Households (C&S HH). The market is considered as the second largest advertising market in South India next to Tamil Nadu.
United Andhra has the highest Television Household (TVHH) penetration in the country. which is much higher than its peers and the national average
The Media industry in Andhra Pradesh for both content and distribution is being controlled and dominated by entities owned by politicians and prominent film actors from the state.
Key MSOs, Last mile Cable distribution, Regional Television Channels (GECs) and majority of Telugu News channels are owned by Politicians, film stars, financial companies and real estate related business conglomerates.
AP market has leading GECs Maa TV, Eenadu TV, Zee Telugu and Gemini TV which are competing with each other neck to neck GRP game. All of them are Paid channels which collects sizable amount of Subscription revenues. AP audience give equal importance to both Fiction and Non Fiction content.
The state has the highest number of news channel than any other state in the country with affiliations from Political parties, Real estate Business Entities and Film actors. However, The news channel TV9 owned by Associated Broadcasting Company is considered as the topper in news category with an average ratings of 100 GRP pre week.
Undivided AP’s Cable TV market is dominated by national player like Hathway and Other key players include SITI Cable, Digicable and IMCL. They procure Set Top Boxes mainly from Cisco, Indieon, Pace and Latens.
Cable TV digitization in the state commenced with phase 2 of Digitization in two of its cities Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam. New independent MSOs have emerged in the state during phase 2 digitization, and the trend is likely to continue with phase 3 and 4, as couple of new licences were acquired from I&B ministry by the new entrants recently.
All major private DTH operators are present in the state, but DTH penetration at 13% in 2013 is less than its peers.
Undivided AP’s entertainment tax for Cable TV stands at 6% of turnover of MSO and Rs 3 per connection in municipal corporations, and Rs 100 per LCO in rural areas.
