ZING Brand Gains Traction in Orissa- Dish TV

Subscriber addition trends are encouraging in Odisha, but for the rest of India the trends are similar to last year, as per our survey. Notably, Odisha is one of the three states where Dish has launched the lower priced Zing brand. Additionally, some of the dealers we surveyed were of the opinion that Dish’s relatively weaker customer service (compared to other direct to home [DTH] players) has proved to be a hindrance in retaining/improving market share, especially in Tier 1 cities

Zing (low-cost regional offering) in Odisha and the north-east is likely to pull down the average ARPU. Dish indicated during its 4QFY14 conference call that the base pack for Zing users is typically 20% lower than its regular product.


Our survey revealed that package prices have risen 6-10% over the past 6-12 months. Dish’s mid-tier package monthly charge of INR 300 is very similar to that of cable operators in Tier 1 cities (c.INR 250-300) leaving little room for material ARPU upside. A higher proportion of subscribers on Zing and lower ARPU from marginal customers in Tier 3/Tier 4 cities could drag down overall ARPU growth for Dish, in our view.

Dish’s average gross ARPU is c.INR 225 vs INR 250-300 charged by cable operators. While Dish’s ARPUs are marginally lower vs. cable operators, we believe that the differential is not big enough to induce churn given the activation costs for a DTH connection. Besides, Dish’s mid-tier package monthly charge of INR 300 is very similar to that of cable operators in Tier 1 cities (c.INR 250-300). Therefore, we believe it would be difficult for Dish to push up its package prices materially from these levels.

The increasing proportion of lower paying marginal subscribers from Tier 3 and Tier 4 cities would drag down the average ARPU, in our opinion. A further addition in Tier 1 and Tier 2 is difficult as digitisation in these towns is mostly complete and incremental additions would be only via churn (from other operators). The perception that Dish’s customer service is poor, as was highlighted by a few distributors in our survey, would be a hindrance in gaining further churn subscribers, in our view