Mumbai: India’s television distribution market is witnessing a rapid transformation as broadband-based television services gain traction at the expense of traditional pay television platforms. The latest performance indicators released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) for the January-March 2026 quarter show continued subscriber erosion across private pay DTH and large cable television operators, while Bharti Airtel’s IPTV business has emerged as the biggest beneficiary of changing consumer preferences.
The regulator’s latest quarterly data highlights a distribution ecosystem increasingly split between legacy television platforms grappling with subscriber losses and newer internet-delivered television services riding on the country’s expanding fibre broadband infrastructure.
Pay DTH subscriber decline accelerates
Private pay DTH operators continued to witness a sharp contraction in their subscriber base during the March quarter.
According to TRAI, the active subscriber base of private pay DTH operators declined to 49.05 million as on March 31, 2026, from 50.99 million at the end of December 2025, representing a sequential decline of 1.94 million subscribers, or approximately 19.4 lakh.
The annual decline is even more pronounced. Pay DTH subscriptions have fallen from 56.92 million in March 2025 to 49.05 million a year later, translating into a loss of 7.87 million subscribers, or 78.7 lakh. This represents a 13.8% year-on-year contraction, underscoring the sustained migration of consumers towards broadband-enabled entertainment platforms and free television alternatives.
The continued decline reflects the structural challenges confronting India’s satellite television industry, which has been battling increasing competition from OTT streaming platforms, changing viewing habits and the growing availability of bundled broadband entertainment services.
Tata Play continued to remain India’s largest private pay DTH operator during the quarter, although the gap with Bharti Telemedia narrowed further.
Airtel drives IPTV expansion
While traditional pay television continued to contract, IPTV emerged as the fastest-growing segment within television distribution, with growth overwhelmingly driven by Bharti Airtel.
Airtel’s active IPTV subscriber base climbed to 35.95 lakh as on March 31, 2026, compared with 25.41 lakh at the end of December 2025 and 15.68 lakh at the end of September 2025.
The telecom operator added 10.54 lakh IPTV subscribers during the March quarter alone, representing sequential growth of around 41.5%. Over the six-month period, Airtel’s IPTV subscriber base expanded by 20.27 lakh, reflecting a remarkable 129% increase.
TRAI said 76 IPTV operators had submitted self-declarations for providing IPTV services. However, the market remains heavily concentrated, with Airtel accounting for by far the largest reported subscriber base.
Among other IPTV operators, Andhra Pradesh State Fibernet reported 4.11 lakh active subscribers, followed by Fastway Transmission with 1.29 lakh subscribers, while the remaining reporting operators had significantly smaller subscriber bases.
The rapid IPTV adoption mirrors India’s expanding fibre broadband footprint and growing consumer preference for bundled broadband, television and OTT offerings delivered over a single internet connection.
Large cable operators continue to lose subscribers
TRAI’s data also points to continued pressure within the organised cable television market.
The regulator publishes subscriber data only for Multi System Operators (MSOs) and Headend-in-the-Sky (HITS) operators with more than one million subscribers. While these figures do not represent the country’s entire cable television universe, they provide an important indicator of trends among the largest distribution platforms.
The combined disclosed subscriber base of large MSOs and HITS operators declined to 32.53 million in March 2026 across nine MSOs and two HITS operators, compared with 35.14 million across 10 MSOs and one HITS operator in December 2025.
The large-operator base has therefore declined by 2.62 million subscribers sequentially, and by 5.79 million subscribers since June 2025, when TRAI reported a combined subscriber base of 38.32 million across 11 MSOs and one HITS operator.
The broader distribution ecosystem has also continued to consolidate. TRAI said 752 MSOs and two HITS operators were registered with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting as on March 31, 2026, down from 774 MSOs and one HITS operator in December 2025.
The decline has been consistent over successive quarters. The regulator had reported 842 registered MSOs in June 2025, which fell to 818 in September, 774 in December and 752 by March 2026.
GTPL retains leadership amid HITS transition
GTPL Hathway continued to remain the country’s largest cable distribution platform among operators with more than one million subscribers, although its reported subscriber numbers require careful interpretation following changes in regulatory classification.
The company’s MSO subscriber base stood at 71.62 lakh during the March quarter, compared with 89.44 lakh in December 2025. However, GTPL Hathway also appeared separately in TRAI’s March data as a HITS operator with 15.93 lakh subscribers.
Taken together, GTPL’s combined MSO and HITS subscriber base amounted to approximately 87.55 lakh subscribers, indicating that while the operator did experience some decline, the reduction was considerably smaller than suggested by its standalone MSO figure.
Among other major operators, Den Networks reported a decline from 26.17 lakh subscribers in December to 19.04 lakh in March, while NXT Digital, listed as a HITS operator, saw its subscriber base reduce from 17.62 lakh to 13.69 lakh.
Not all operators witnessed declines. Kerala Communicators Cable increased its subscriber base from 37.48 lakh to 37.99 lakh, while Tamil Nadu Arasu Cable TV grew from 17.12 lakh to 17.48 lakh subscribers during the quarter.
Meanwhile, Fastway Transmission, which reported 10.13 lakh subscribers in December, no longer featured in TRAI’s March list of operators above the one-million subscriber threshold.
Industry consolidation gathers pace
The subscriber trends coincide with increasing consolidation within India’s cable television industry.
The TRAI report was released days after ACT Group, owner of ACT Fibernet, agreed to exit the cable television business by selling seven cable TV entities to GTPL Hathway for Rs 36.23 crore. The acquired businesses serve nearly six lakh subscribers across Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and Odisha.
Although the transaction falls outside TRAI’s March 31 reporting period, it reinforces the broader direction of the market, where broadband-focused operators are reassessing legacy cable assets while larger distribution companies pursue acquisitions to strengthen scale and regional presence.
Television broadcasting ecosystem remains extensive
Despite continued pressure on the distribution side, India’s broadcasting ecosystem itself remains robust.
TRAI said the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting had permitted 917 private satellite television channels for uplinking, downlinking or both as of March 31, 2026.
Of the 908 satellite television channels available for downlinking in India, broadcasters reported 342 pay television channels under TRAI’s tariff framework, comprising 238 standard-definition (SD) channels and 104 high-definition (HD) channels. The remaining 566 channels were classified as free-to-air (FTA).
Broadband emerges as the industry’s growth engine
The latest TRAI data illustrates a television distribution industry undergoing a fundamental structural shift.
While satellite television and traditional cable distribution continue to lose subscribers, broadband-led television delivery is emerging as the sector’s primary growth engine. Airtel’s rapid IPTV expansion demonstrates the growing consumer preference for integrated broadband and entertainment offerings, while the decline in both DTH and large cable subscriber bases reflects the gradual erosion of legacy television platforms.
Combined with ongoing consolidation among cable operators and increasing investment in fibre infrastructure, the latest subscriber trends suggest India’s television distribution market is steadily evolving from a broadcast-led ecosystem towards one centred on broadband connectivity and internet-delivered content.
