Digitization in Phase 3 will be slow and gradual

Recent stay orders by four state high courts have postponed digitisation by couple of months, however we believe the impact will be broad based in slowing the overall process and completion may take c6 months. As per the broadcasting ministry Phase 3 digitization is estimated to cover c38m TV households across 630 districts and 7709 urban centres. After Phase 3 we estimate total digitized households to increase to c35% to c90 m TV households. Delay is particularly negative for Direct to Home (DTH) players (including Dish TV) as it limits their ability to benefit from subscriber growth. Delay allows smaller cable operators to get in more time to retain existing subscribers.

Broadcasters to benefit most from Phase 3 as sector subscription revenues rise by c45% to USD3; however monetization will be gradual over 9-12 months. Theoretically entire subscription revenues should be flowing to EBITDA, however due to rising competitive intensity and the need to invest in Over the Top (OTT) offerings, we see subscription EBITDA at no more than c60%. With expansion in mobile data users by 2x to
250m over the next 12 months, entry of global giants like Netflix in the OTT space, OTT investments by traditional broadcasters should see an increase