Dish TV pegs its FY17 capital expenditure need at about Rs 850 crore

JitendraKumar

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MUMBAI:India's first-and-only direct-to-home
(DTH) company to post net profit, Dish TV, is
expecting its capital expenditure (capex)
requirement to be around Rs 850 crore in FY17,
as it is eyeing a big share of the remaining 45-50
million analogue TV homes in phase III and IV of
the government-mandated digitisation
programme, Digital Addressable System (DAS).
The company is not looking to raise money
through equity markets, a top executive told ET.


"In FY16, capex was around Rs 775-800 crore.
For FY17, requirement will be Rs 850 crore. But,
we will not raise any money through equity or
markets and the debt level will remain same or
go down because of the free cash flow," said
Arun Kapoor, CEO of Dish TV.


Dish TV, which turned profitable in the last fiscal,
had turned free cash flow positive in FY12. It
claims a net subscriber base of 12.9 million as of
FY15.


Kapoor, who joined Dish TV as CEO in November
last year, considers phases III and IV of DAS as
big opportunities. According to him, Phase III
momentum was stalled because of the court
cases after the sunset date.


"Phase III started off well and December was
good. But then it got stalled. I believe it is just a
matter of time and in couple of months the
cases will get settled," Kapoor said. "It is also a
reality that while there has been a break in the
momentum, the seeding of boxes continues."


The sunset date for Phase III was December 31,
2015. The same for Phase IV (rural India) is
December 31, 2016. As per market estimates,
total TV homes in phase III are 50 million, out of
which cable and DTH together have already
digitised 25-30 million, while DAS IV areas have
another 25-30 million analogue TV homes.


Sensing the opportunity, Dish TV introduced
'Dish99' pack across phase III & IV markets in
November. Kapoor said that Zing, a low-cost
product from Dish TV specifically for regional
markets, is contributing 20% of current
acquisitions.


"Dish 99 is getting us close to 30% of new
subscribers, Zing and HD clients are 20% each,
while the remaining 30% are the SD subscribers."

http://m.economictimes.com/industry...t-about-rs-850-crore/articleshow/51706458.cms
 
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