Noida: Dish TV India Limited has reported second quarter fiscal 2020 consolidated unaudited subscription revenues of Rs. 7,920 million and operating revenues of Rs. 8,932 million. EBITDA for the quarter stood at Rs. 5,205million.
With programming cost becoming a pass-through item in the New Tariff Regime, subscription and operating revenues for the quarter are not comparable with the corresponding period last year.
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 and its subsidiaries for the quarter ended September 30, 2019.
Building on its Strengths
The seasonally weak second quarter came bundled with other external challenges this time. Slowing subscriber additions due to a not so robust macro-economic environment, price undercutting by peers, along with heavy rains and flooding in many parts of the country made subscriber acquisitions and retention a challenging task. Dish TV India Limited however chose to be resilient making the best of every opportunity coming its way.
The Company, notwithstanding any of these, added 42 thousand subscribers at a net level during the second quarter. Churn, though higher, was on expected lines. The total net subscriber base at the end of the quarter was 23.94 million.
“Setting aside the price undercutting resorted to by some peers in parts of the country, Dish TV India maintained a fine balance between subscriber acquisition and the cost of such acquisition. The Company intentionally avoided adding extremely value-conscious subscribers,” said Mr. Anil Dua, Group CEO, Dish TV India Limited.
Financial performance during the quarter was a mixed bag with the EBITDA margin strengthening further while absolute revenues and EBITDA remained on the softer side.
Subscription revenues for the quarter stood at Rs. 7,920 million. Prolonged monsoon resulted in recharge delays impacting subscription revenues for the quarter. The absence of big ticket sporting events like the Cricket World Cup also impacted subscription revenues and churn reported during the second quarter, as compared to the previous quarter.
EBITDA for the quarter was Rs. 5,205 million with a strong EBITDA margin of 58.3%. H1 FY20 EBITDA added up to Rs. 10,565 million.
A temporarily dried-up credit line, due to factors beyond the operational performance of the Company, led to an increase in payables. Payable days are expected to be normalized by the end of the fiscal.
Widening the portfolio of offering for its subscribers, Dish TV India launched its much awaited Smart Connected Devices comprising of the Dish SMRT Hub Android set-top box and Dish SMRT Kit – a voice enabled dongle with an Amazon Alexa powered remote across 20 carefully selected locations in the country. The Company registered an encouraging response for both the next generation products and aims to address a 5 million market for the Dish SMRT Kit along with virtually the entire market of broadband-connected houses with the Dish SMRT Hub.
During the quarter, Dish TV’s OTT platform,Watcho, won the ‘Best Content in an Influencer Marketing Campaign’ award for the original comedy show ‘Vote The Hell’, under the best co-created content category. The company intends to carve out a niche for itself in the fast growing OTT space and is aiming to launch select original web series in the coming months on its OTT platform.
As the government lays out the next round of measures for the economy, shifting focus to fueling demand and consumption, consumer optimism and willingness to spend should soon come back to normal. The onset of festivals at the end of the second quarter gave an early indication of normalcy in the coming months.
“The Company, in a bid to elevate the festive fervour, launched special combos and exciting offers catering to the needs of customers across various segments.The new festive packages have been designed keeping in mind the diverse choice of content across various segments and should further strengthen our base across the country,” added, Mr. Dua
Dish TV Q2FY20 Highlights:
- 42 thousand net subscriber additions during the quarter. Closing net subscriber base of 23.94 million.
- Subscription revenues of Rs. 7,920 million
- Operating revenues of Rs. 8,932 million
- EBITDA of Rs. 5,205 million
- EBITDA margin at 58.3%
