Foreign players start eyeing Indian DTH cos

[Bapun]

Bloomberg TV India has learnt that talks have begun between the foreign media companies and the Indian DTH service providers for investing into Indian plays. With digitization drive hitting the peak in metros, deals are expected to be finalized only after completion of Phase 1 on November 1, 2012. A few names that are closely eyeing developments in India are- Dish Network (US), Verizon (US), Astro (Malaysia), Foxtel (Australia) and Comcast (US).

According to sources, Videocon D2H is also in talks with a few foreign players, though nothing yet has been finalized. The company says that foreign investors are waiting to see how much the digitization drive picks up in the beginning of 2013 and only then will they decide on investing, sources said.

Malaysia 's Astro may also once again consider hiking its stake from 20% to 35% in Sun Direct, the DTH arm of Sun Group.

As per the current market share stand, Dish TV leads with the market share of 13.9 million gross subscribers followed by Tata Sky with 9.7 million. Airtel had 8.4 million subscribers as per records for September 2012 and Videocon D2H had 6.6 million subscribers.

<p>&nbsp;<b><i>DTH Subcriber Base - Src: Media Partners Asia (MPA)</i></b></p>
<table border="2" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
<tbody><tr>
<td width="159" valign="top"><p><b>&nbsp;Name of Company </b></p></td>
<td width="185" valign="top"><p><b>&nbsp;Gross Subs (mn) </b></p></td>
<td width="175" valign="top"><p><b>&nbsp;Gross Adds (mn) </b></p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="159" valign="top"><p>&nbsp;Dish TV </p></td>
<td width="185" valign="top"><p>&nbsp;13.9 </p></td>
<td width="175" valign="top"><p>&nbsp;0.18 </p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="159" valign="top"><p>&nbsp;Tata Sky </p></td>
<td width="185" valign="top"><p>&nbsp;9.7 </p></td>
<td width="175" valign="top"><p>&nbsp;0.16 </p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="159" valign="top"><p>&nbsp;Airtel</p></td><td width="185" valign="top"><p>&nbsp;8.4 </p></td>
<td width="175" valign="top"><p>&nbsp;0.15 </p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="159" valign="top"><p>Sun Direct</p></td>
<td width="185" valign="top"><p>&nbsp;7.8 </p></td>
<td width="175" valign="top"><p>&nbsp;0.06 </p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="159" valign="top"><p>Videocon</p></td>
<td width="185" valign="top"><p>&nbsp;6.6 </p></td>
<td width="175" valign="top"><p>&nbsp;0.19 </p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="159" valign="top"><p>&nbsp;Big TV</p></td>
<td width="185" valign="top"><p>&nbsp;4.5 </p></td>
<td width="175" valign="top"><p>&nbsp;0.03 </p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="159" valign="top"><p><b>&nbsp;Total </b></p></td>
<td width="185" valign="top"><p><b>&nbsp;50.9 </b></p></td>
<td width="175" valign="top"><p><b>&nbsp;0.77 </b></p></td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<p>&nbsp; </p>

http://www.yourmoneysite.com/news/2012/oct/foreign-players-start-eyeing-indian-dth-cos.html

 

[Biswajit.HD]

A foriegn joint venture with any dth in India means better hardware and good infrastructure possibilities.... Tata and sky ltd joint venture : Tata sky is an example of it