The total active subscriber base for Pay direct-to-home (DTH) services has increased from 61.97 million in March 2024 to 62.17 million in the quarter ending in June 2024 (Q1FY25).
In 2023, the subscriber base stood at 65.25 million.
In its ‘Indian Telecom Services Performance Indicator Report’ for the June quarter, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) noted that there were four pay DTH service providers in the country in the same period.
The market share of Tata Play stood at 32.34%, followed by Bharti Telemedia at 28.85%, Dish TV at 19.98%, and Sun Direct TV at 18.83%.
This comes at a times when distribution platform operators (DPOs) with the likes of Tata Sky and Dish TV are planning to approach the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) to urge an intervention and prevent over-the-top (OTT) platforms from streaming live TV channels. They have argued that digitisation has already posed a threat to traditional pay TVs and DPOs. Further, allowing OTTs to stream live TV is reportedly to erode such services.
“Pay DTH has attained total active subscriber base of around 62.17 million. This is in addition to the subscribers of the DD Free Dish (free DTH services of Doordarshan). The total active subscriber base has increased from 61.97 million in March 2024 to 62.17 million in June 2024,” TRAI noted in its latest report.
The report provided a broad perspective of the telecom services in India and presented the key parameters and growth trends of the telecom services as well as Cable TV, DTH and radio broadcasting services.
Read more: DPOs may approach MIB to prevent OTT platforms from streaming live TV channels
According to TRAI, the total number of internet subscribers increased from 954.40 million at the end of March 2024 to 969.60 million at the end of June quarter 2024, registering a quarterly rate of growth 1.59%.
Out of 969.60 million internet subscribers, the number of wired Internet subscribers stood at 42.04 million and the number of wireless internet subscribers was 927.56 million.
The internet subscriber base is comprised of broadband internet subscriber base of 940.75 million and narrowband Internet subscriber base of 28.85 million.
Read more: Pay DTH subscribers plummet by over 3 million in just one year
The broadband internet subscriber base increased by 1.81% from 924.07 million at the end of March’24 to 940.75 million at the end of June’24. The narrowband internet subscriber base decreased from 30.34 million at the end of March’24 to 28.85 million at the end of June’24.
Wireline subscribers increased from 33.79 million at the end of March’24 to 35.11 million at the end of June’24 with a quarterly rate of growth 3.90% and, on Y-O-Y basis, wireline subscriptions also increased by 15.81% at the end of June’24 quarter. Wireline Tele-density increased from 2.41% at the end of March’24 to 2.50% at the end of June’24 with quarterly rate of growth 3.67%.
Monthly Average Revenue per User (ARPU) for wireless service increased by 55%, from Rs 153.54 in quarter ending March to Rs 157.45 in the quarter ending June’24.
On a Y-O-Y basis, monthly ARPU for wireless service increased by 8.11% in this quarter.
That apart the license fee increased from Rs 5,637 crore for the quarter ending March 2024 to Rs 5,645 crore for the quarter ending June’24. The quarterly and the Y-O-Y rates of growth in license fees are 0.14% and 7.62% respectively in this quarter.
Telephone subscribers base
TRAI also highlighted that the number of telephone subscribers in India increased from 1,199.28 million at the end of March’24 to 1,205.64 million at the end of June’24, registering a rate of growth 0.53% over the previous quarter. This reflects Y-O-Y rate of growth 2.70% over the same quarter of the last year.
The overall tele-density in India increased from 85.69% as in quarter ending March’24 to 85.95% in June’24.
Further, rural telephone subscribers increased from 533.90 million at the end of March’24 to 538.51 million at the end of June’24 and rural tele-density also increased from 59.19% to 59.65% during the same period.
Out of the total subscriptions, the share of rural subscriptions increased from 44.52% at the end of March’24 to 44.67% at the end of June’24.