Bengaluru : As of June 2014 the pay television market in Karnataka has an overall subscriber base of 6.90 million, as per an estimated report by Dataxis. There has been a meagre growth rate of 0.90% quarter-on-quarter. The research firm has reported that Karnataka has over 2.5 million digital cable pay television subscribers and 4.46 million analogue cable television subscribers at the end of June 2014.
Moreover, Den Networks Karnataka, IMCL Karnataka, Hathway Karnataka and ACT Karnataka are the leading players in terms of pay-TV subscribers in the state. Den, IMCL, Hathway and ACT’s total subscribers in the pay-TV market stood at 2.5 million, 1.36 million, 900,000 and 452,000 subscribers at the end of June 2014.
While, Den Networks Karnataka has added over 50,000 subscribers in the second quarter 2014 to its overall pay-TV market. Its digital cable pay-TV and analogue cable TV subscribers stood at 2.5 million and 450,000 respectively at the end of June 2014. IMCL Karnataka, Hathway Karnataka and ACT Karnataka have added over 30,000, 40,000 and 30,000 pay-TV subscribers respectively to its overall pay-TV market in the Q2 2014.
It is understood that on an average Karnataka contributes to 7.57% of all India C&S HH. Bangalore and Mysore achieved 90% digitization within the extended phase 2 deadline, however, progress in the digitization of CATV in the state has slowed down in phase 3 and 4.
TV subscription rates are higher comparing to the neighbouring states, forcing the government to propose launching of its own cable distribution system to bring down the subscription charges similar to TN governments Arasu Cable Network. However, government’s plan has met with stiff opposition from MSOs; TRAI’s policy also does not allow government to enter cable distribution business
The digitization drive has encouraged the formation of new independent MSOs. DTH penetration in the state is about 26% in 2013. All 6 national private DTH operators are present in the state.
Huge competition prevails among the major GECs Udaya TV, ETV Kannada, Zee Kannada, Kasthuri and Suvarna for the grab of eyeballs.
The Entertainment tax for CATV in state stands at 6% of turnover of MSO and DTH operator (INR30 to 60 per subscribers)
