Private DTH television providers in India will continue to see revenue decline this fiscal, but at a reduced rate of 3–4 per cent compared with ~5 per cent last fiscal, as they expand into IPTV and push bundled offerings, according to forecasts from Crisil Ratings. Rising marketing income and scaling back customer acquisition incentives (in terms of subsidised set top boxes (STBs)) by select players will also support revenue and cushion profitability.

An analysis of all private DTH companies in the India, covering some 53 million subscribers as of September 30th 2025, indicates as much.

The subscriber churn continues as more affluent users switch to OTT media services and budget-conscious ones switch to DD Free Dish. The subscriber base of private DTH providers reduced from 7.2 crore in fiscal 2019 to 6.19 crore by fiscal 2024. This further slipped 9 per cent in fiscal 2025 and is expected to drop below 5.1 crore by end of current fiscal.

Ankit Hakhu, Director at Crisil Ratings, commented: “Although cord cutting has put pressure on DTH companies, leading to secular revenue degrowth over the past six years, operators are making inroads in new areas such as IPTV to drive bundled services (OTT, broadband, live TV). IPTV services have gained significant traction, with their customer base almost quadrupling to 21.3 lakh as of September 2025 from ~5.7 lakh in fiscal 2024. This has provided significant upselling opportunities to operators. By enabling delivery of both OTT and live TV through broadband without a dish, operators are likely to limit the subscriber churn.”

There are pockets of resilience amid the challenges to linear TV. For instance, in south India, the pace of cord cutting has been limited, with the leading DTH operator there managing to increase market share by keeping its subscriber numbers largely intact amid declining subscribers across the industry.

Gauri Gupta, Team Leader at Crisil Ratings, added: “Though the revenue of private DTH players will be impacted by the reduction in subscriber base, this will be partially offset by income from marketing on the player’s own OTT aggregator platforms offered via hybrid boxes. Furthermore, reduction in customer acquisition incentives by select players, through elimination of discounts on STBs for new subscribers, will add to the support.”

As a result, margins, which fell from 48 per cent in fiscal 2023 to 45 per cent in fiscal 2025, are expected to remain stable at 44–45 per cent this fiscal on account of milder revenue de-growth.

Greater stickiness of consumers in certain parts of the country due to stronger focus on regional content and limited offerings by competing DD Free Dish which offers only three of the top 10 most viewed channels will remain an advantage for DTH players. Also, monthly OTT subscription charges with broadband continue to be more than twice as expensive as DTH packs, thus limiting their adoption by the more value conscious populace.

That said, tariff hikes by DTH operators and growing competitive digital alternatives could pose a threat to overall TV viewership and will bear watching, concluded Crisil Ratings.

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Categories: Articles, Broadcast, DTH/Satellite, Markets, Research

Tags: dth, india, IPTV, OTT