DTH industry wants duty free import of set top boxes

The direct-to-home (DTH) industry is demanding a duty free regime for imported set top boxes as the industry feels that import duties on these are resulting in increase in cost being borne by the consumer and hence slowing the pace of expansion of the industry. A similar demand has also been made by the cable TV industry.

Economists argue that such a move will have a positive impact on government’s revenue on a net basis as reduction in cost of installation will increase business in both the DTH as well as the cable segment.

Even the information and broadcasting ministry (I&B) has argued that it is in the government’s own financial interest to eliminate all import duties for at least the next five years on digital set top boxes for both cable and direct-to-home segments. The ministry has raised the issue before the finance ministry in the pre-budget consultations which are currently going on for the Union budget for FY10.

At present, imported digital set top boxes attract a special additional duty at the rate of 4% as well as a countervailing duty at 8%. Together these two raises the cost of set top boxes by 12%. The I&B ministry feels that both the duties should be cut for the next five years which will help boost growth of the industry.

Videocon to launch DTH service on June 20, 2009

Videocon, the domestic consumer electronics major, is planning to launch its direct-to-home (DTH) service in Kolkata at proposed date June 20, 2009. Bharat Business Channel (BBCL), a subsidiary of the Videocon Group will handle DTH service. The company will market its DTH services through around 30,000 dealers. The company will sell its DTH service under the brand name D2H+.

Videocon will roll out colour television will in built set-top box in a price range of Rs 8,000. The company will manufacture the set top boxes at its Aurangabad factory, which will be priced at Rs 4,000.

Under DTH services segment, company plans to create customer base of 2 million subscribers in the current fiscal. Later in FY 2010-11, it plans to reach 5 million customers. The company has set a target for itself of reaching 1 crore houses, within a period of five years.

On August 15, 2009, the company plans to launch its GSM mobile service in Chennai. Videocon will handle its mobile service segment through its subsidiary Datacom.

Registered base crosses 5.20 million

Dish TV India Limited (dishtv), India's No. 1 direct-to-home company and part of India’s biggest media conglomerate - Zee group, added 136,330 new subscribers in the month of April 2009, taking its total registered base to over 5.20 million. The adoption of the DTH market category in the month of April was 0.72 million subscribers approximately.

The new proposition is substantiated through dishtv’s competitive advantage, as it offers within competition the maximum width and depth of content, with 240 channels and services. dishtv also offers the maximum channels across genres/languages to its subscribers along with maximum value at every price point. This gives dishtv a unique edge over cable and other DTH players, which show limited regional content.

Tata Sky + Sun Direct TV Channel Offerings

We are presenting to you the number of channels offered by each of the DTH Service providers [DishTV, Tata Sky, Sun Direct, Reliance big TV and Airtel Digital TV] in India. Here is the breakup.
DTH Operator wise offering

Depreciating rupee a cause of concern for DTH players

The depreciating rupee against the dollar impacted the direct-to-home (DTH) industry adversely owing to import of set-top boxes (STB) at nearly 10-15% increased prices and offering to the subscribers at a subsidized rate.

Since the appreciating dollar has caused a rise of almost 10-15% in prices of import-dependent set-top boxes, industry players are concerned over the fate of revenues and viability. Even after service duty reduction, the DTH industry has not been benefited much owing to the slipping rupee.

Sun TV - Analyst Call Takeaways

We recently met the management of Sun TV. The key takeaways from the meeting are:

Ad revenues: Although the outlook on advertisement revenues is challenging, the company expects to increase ad revenues by increasing inventory utilization (current inventory utilization level is ~50-55%). However it believes that ad rate hikes are unlikely. Sun TV had increased rates by ~10% in Feb, 2008. Broadcast fee rates depend strongly on the ad-spends scenario. FMCG (55%) is the highest contributor of advertisement revenues for Sun TV. The ad mix in terms of Regional:National is ~30:70. This has protected Sun TV as both FMCG and regional advertisers continue to remain buoyant.

DTH subscribers: Sun TV had ~3.3 mn DTH subscribers as of Dec 08. This is expected to increase to 3.8 mn by end of March ‘09. Its ARPU from DTH subscribers is INR 26 per month currently. Company expects significant ramp up in DTH subscribers and revenues in FY10.

Analogue revenues: Sun TV expects to increase it analogue subscription revenues by 15-20% in FY10.

International revenues: The company is receiving overseas revenues from Malaysia, Singapore, Canada, Sri Lanka, and UK. In the US the company is present only in the DTH distribution network, and soon expects to be carried by other digital and analog carriers also. It expects 10-15% incremental revenues from this stream. Currently Sun TV’s forex exposure is only in USD and it has benefitted from the recent appreciation of the currency.

Competition: Kalaignar TV's market share is much below compared to Sun TV (Tamil GEC). However, according to our industry checks Kalaignar TV has been able to boost its presence strongly with programming of comparable quality, which could turn out to be a potential threat for Sun TV. In the presence of these two channels others players have been further marginalized in a market which was already dominated by Sun TV.

Movie production: In the movie production business Sun TV would be closing FY09 with 6 movies, all under INR 50 mn cost of production. Out of these 6 movies, it is currently carrying 5 movies on its balance sheet - under intangibles - which will be written off after 1st broadcast. In FY10 the company plans to invest INR 500 - 700 mn in the business, producing 8-10 movies with an average return expectation of 20-25%.

Radio: In the radio business, the company expects a topline of INR 300 mn and a loss of INR 600 mn in FY09. For FY10, the company expects to reduce net loss to INR 400 – 450 mn on a topline of INR 400 mn. It is also expecting to break-even in FY11. All the stations together will be fully operational for the first time in FY10. It has been constantly cutting down on redundant expenses in the business.

Capex: On broader financial aspects – Sun TV doesn’t expect any significant surprises on the operating costs front. Cap-ex planned for FY10 is ~INR 2.5 bn (INR 1 bn for enhancing its movie library, INR 400 mn for broadcasting business, INR 100 mn for the radio business and INR 1 bn for office premises).

Indian Pay-revenue Model

Here is how Indian DTH Market is expected to perform in the next 2 years.

• No of DTH Homes at end of FY2009 - 8.1 mn which is 10% of Cable Market with an ARPU of Rs 180. Overall size of the DTH market is Rs 13,100 cr.
  
• The Number of DTH Homes by FY12 is expected to be 21 mn which is likely to be 21% of Cable market and have an ARPU of Rs 208

What will DTH Broadcasters Get ?
We estimate content costs are ~55% of subscription revenues and are expected to decline to ~45% of revenues as the “sliding scale” mechanism kicks in.

Ramp-up Plans of DTH Players

In the next few posts we are going to cover about DTH market in India along with TV broadcasting and content market with some amazing statistics that will be unveiled for the first time.

Today we are going to tell you about the business plans of various DTH service providers.

• Dish TV [Zee Group Company] Has a customerb ase of 4.4mn is the largest and oldest operator in the DTH business in India
• DD Direct - DTH arm of Doordarshan has 3.5 mn subscribers. Most likely to end up with the same fate as BSNL in Mobile Subscribers [Initial Lead and will fall later]
  
• Tata Sky - Looking at a minimum of 8m connections by FY12 from the current 2m subscribers in direct-to-home (DTH) space
• Sun Direct - Sun Direct announced 1m DTH subscribers in 200 days - only from the four Southern states. The company is targeting 3m subs by year end
• Reliance Big TV - Big TV announced on Oct 20 that it had reached 0.5m subscribers within 2 months of launch. It plans to add ~0.4m subscribers every month with an on ground infrastructure spanning 6,500 towns. The company is targeting 5m subscribers within the first year of operations
• Bharti Airtel Digital TV - Recently launched. Digital TV will be initially available in 62 cities across the country through 21,000 retail points (including Airtel relationship centres). According to press articles, the company aims to capture 20% of the net additions of DTH subscribers this year

Videocon which has thrown its hat into the Mobile telephony business is also entering the DTH business.