BENGALURU: Indian direct to home (DTH) company Dish TV India Limited (Dish TV) has reported growth across important financial and operational parameters including operating revenues (TIO) , EBIDTA and subscription numbers. The company reported addition of 2.59 lakh net subscribers for the quarter ended 30 September 2016 (Q2-17, current). It closed the quarter with 151 lakh subscribers. Average revenue per user (ARPU) for Q2-17 was Rs 162 in the current quarter versus Rs 161 in the corresponding year ago quarter..

Dish TV reported 11.9 per cent higher y-o-y subscription revenue of Rs 728.8 crore for Q2-17, as compared to Rs 651.4 crore. Operating revenue in the current quarter increased 9.6 per cent y-o-y to Rs 779.6 crore from Rs 711.2 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. (Refer Note 2.1 and 2.2 below)

Segment Revenue

Three segments contribute to Dish TV’s numbers – DTH; Infra Support Services; and ‘Others’.

DTH segment revenue in Q2-17 declined 14.2 per cent to Rs 509.55 crore from Rs 594.16 crore in Q2-16. The segment reported 15.5 per cent lower operating profit in the current quarter at Rs 86.43 crore as compared to Rs 102.24 crore in the corresponding year ago quarter.

Infra Support services segment reported 13.7 higher y-o-y revenue of Rs 280.65 crore in Q2-17 vis-à-vis Rs 246.91 crore in Q2-16. The segment’s operating profit declined 39.3 per cent in the current quarter to Rs 12.30 crore from Rs 20.26 crore in the corresponding year ago quarter.

‘Others’ segment revenue increased 3.5 per cent in Q2-17 to Rs 5.59 crore from Rs 5.40 crore in Q2-16. The segment’s operating profit grew 5.3 per cent in the current quarter to Rs 2.80 crore from Rs 2.6 6 crore in Q2-16.

A look at the other numbers reported by Dish TV

Dish TV reported PAT of Rs. 70.1 crore in Q2-17, down 19.4 per cent as compared to Rs 87 crore in Q2-16.

EBIDTA in the current quarter increased 3.6 per cent to Rs 264.2 crore from Rs 255 crore in Q2-16.

Expense in the current quarter increased 12.9 per cent y-o-y to Rs 51.51 crore from Rs 456.2 crore. Employee Benefits Expense increased 23.1 per cent y-o-y to Rs 36.4 crore from Rs 29.58 crore. Other operating expenses in the current quarter declined 30.8 per cent to Rs 70.14 crore from Rs 101.30 crore in Q2-16..

Licensing fees in the current quarter increased 1.3 per cent to Rs 54.52 crore from Rs 53.81 crore in Q2-17. Programming/Content and other costs in Q2-17 increased 17.4 per cent to Rs 238.92 crore from Rs 203.54 crore in Q2-16.

Dish TV managing director Jawahar Goel said, “Torrential rains in many parts of the country often force consumers to defer buying a new DTH connection while the existing ones may delay recharging if the going gets too tough. Both sales and recharge however normalize subsequently if the festival season hits early. Targeting phase 3 & 4 markets, our subscriber additions during the quarter remained in-line with expectations.”

Expressing his views on the regulatory developments, Goel, said, “While the draft Regulations have been formulated with an intention of subscriber welfare, there are certain omissions, optimistic presumptions as well as unanswered questions that would hopefully be addressed once the final orders see the light of the day. We appreciate the spirit of transparency and non-discrimination that have been the guiding force behind these draft orders and hope that DTH would soon get the level playing field that it has been seeking. Restrictions placed on carriage fees should go a long way in correcting the industry macro environment.”

“We continue to remain positive about other regulatory interventions including the proposed new license regime for the DTH sector and the impending nationwide roll-out of Goods and Services Tax (GST). The centre proposing 12 per cent and 18 per cent as the standard rates for majority of the taxable goods is a welcome step,” he added.

Discussing the results, Goel said, “Healthy subscriber additions led to a 11.9% y-o-y growth in subscription revenues. EBITDA margin was 33.9 per cent. Net Profit for the quarter was Rs. 701 million (Rs 70.1 crore) and positive Free Cash Flow was Rs. 791 million (Rs 79.1 crore).”

Notes:The unit of currency in this report is the Indian rupee - Rs (also conventionally represented by INR). The Indian numbering system or the Vedic numbering system has been used to denote money values. The basic conversion to the international norm would be:
(a) 100,00,000 = 100 lakh = 10,000,000 = 10 million = 1 crore.
(b) 10,000 lakh = 100 crore = 1 arab = 1 billion.