Airtel Digital TV, may be looking for merger with Dish TV to talk as the largest DTH company in India

Airtel Digital TV may be looking for a merger with Dish TV to talk as the largest DTH company in India

HIGHLIGHTS

• Reliance Jio will help gear up to compete with GigaTV
• Will claim to have 61% market share with joint operations with companies

It seems that telecom operators Reliance Geo, led by Mukesh Ambani, are stirring in every industry. After disrupting telecom and cellular space, the company is now planning to roll out DTH services, thus, it is pointing to other companies already strengthening when Reliance Jio rolls out its services. . It is worth mentioning that Reliance Jio has already bought large scale bets in cable companies Hathway Cable and Datacom and DEN Networks. With the echo of the merger already in the industry, Sunil Bharti Mittal led Telco Bharti Airtel, who is looking forward to consolidation with Dish TV for its DTH Wing Airtel Digital TV.

Discussions currently in the exploratory phase

According to a report by ET Telecom, a person aware of the matter said that the talks are in an exploratory stage. Another person aware of the issue said, "Idea is about strengthening operations and giving a strong fight to Reliance Jio. Together, Airtel Digital TV and Dish TV will be a giant. "If merge, Airtel Digital TV and Dish TV will create the world's largest TV distribution company with 38 million subscribers and 61% DTH market share in India.

When the questions were answered, both Airtel and Dish TV responded to ET and said they did not comment on market speculation. To recall, it came back in March last year when Videocon D2H and Dish TV merged and thus consolidation began in the DTH industry. Apart from this, Airtel had earlier tried to sell its DTH wing to Tata Sky, but this deal could not be done. However, in December 2017, Airtel sold a 20% stake in Airtel Telecom television, the original firm Warburg Pincus. The value of the stake was $ 350 million (Rs 2,258 crore), which valued the DTH company at Rs 11,300 crore.

Start of consolidation in DTH Sector

In March, the market cap of Dish TV was Rs 7,263.75 crores. At the time of the merger, this figure was declining compared to the estimated valuation of Rs 17,000 crore. On the other hand, the assessment of Tata Sky is about Rs 11,000-12,000 crore.

TRAI disclosed in its report on the DTH market published in September 2018 that Dish TV (combined with Videocon D2H) has a market share of 37% with market share. This is followed by Tata Sky with 27% market share and 24% market share with Airtel Digital TV. In the quarter ended December 2018, Dish TV has 23.6 million subscribers, and it operated Rs 1,517.4 crore, EBITDA of Rs 517.6 crore and ARPU of Rs 200.

For Airtel Digital TV, Q3, till the end of FY19, the company had 15 million subscribers. Revenue from DTH business is Rs. 382.6 crores with EBITDA and 37% margin with Rs. 1,033 crores. ARPU was more for Airtel and it was calculated as 231 rupees.