Mumbai: Dish TV India Limited today reported second quarter fiscal 2018 consolidated operating revenues of Rs. 7,486 million and EBITDA of Rs. 2,161 million. Dish TV adopted Ind-AS (Indian Accounting Standards), notified by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, from 1Q FY18. Consequently, results for the quarter ended September 30, 2016 have been re-stated to comply with Ind-AS to make them comparable.
The Board of Directors in its meeting held today, has approved and taken on record the unaudited consolidated financial results of Dish TV India Limited for the quarter ended on September 30, 2017.
Second Quarter Performance
Moving further away from the demonetization era, Dish TV saw a recovery in its EBITDA margins during the second quarter as compared to the preceding few quarters. Operational efficiencies along with some revenue expansion resulting from an improved customer sentiment led to a margin expansion of 170 bps. EBITDA margins during the quarter were 28.9% as against 27.2% in the previous quarter.
Subscription revenues recorded 1.9% growth sequentially to close at Rs. 7,049 million. Average revenues per user (ARPU) strengthened to Rs. 149 while churn rate recovered to close at slightly less than 0.8% per month.
Subscriber additions at 188 thousand were in line considering the seasonality of the second quarter.
Amalgamation of Videocon D2h into Dish TV
The proposed combination of Dish TV and Videocon d2h would create one of the world’s leading DTH platform.
Mr. JawaharGoel, CMD, Dish TV India Limited, said, “We have been eager to get back to our stakeholders with the news of the successful closure of the merger. With all other approvals in place, the only approval pending is from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. We are optimistic about hearing back from the MIB any moment now and hope to close the merger at the earliest thereafter.”
“We remain excited about the next phase of growth that the combined entity, Dish TV Videocon Limited, will go through and are committed to make the combination a mega success. On the synergy front, we stick to our guidance of Rs. 1,800 million for FY18 and Rs. 5,100 million for FY19,” said Mr. Goel.
High Definition for All
To further strengthen its high definition (HD) base, Dish TV recently started giving limited period complimentary access to 7 popular HD channels in a scheme called ‘HD for All.’ This limited duration offer has been extended to all Dish TV subscribers who are at an ex-GST price point of Rs.169 per month or above. The scheme is not applicable to South India.
With ‘HD for All,’ Dish TV looks forward to convert aspiring Indian television households to the Dish TV DTH platform. In addition, the Company is also hopeful about converting ambitious standard definition subscribers to high-ARPU HD connections once they experience the five times better picture quality of HD through any of the 7 channels.
Mr. JawaharGoel, said, “HD has always been considered to be an effective differentiator in an industry that otherwise has little differentiation to talk about. The ‘HD for All’ scheme shall expedite the SD to HD conversion for subscribers who had so far not experienced HD quality and hence had never considered upgradation.”
