Pay DTH subscribers plummet by over 3 million in just one year
The net active subscriber base of Pay DTH decreased to 61.97 million as of March 31, 2024, compared to 65.25 million subscribers on March 31, 2023, according to TRAI.
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In the last one year, more than three million subscribers have opted out of the pay DTH services.
According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)'s report on 'Indian telecom services yearly performance indicators', Pay DTH (direct-to-home) has a net pay active subscriber base of around 61.97 million, as of March 31, 2024 as compared to 65.25 million subscribers, as on March 31, 2023.
This is in addition to the subscribers of the free DTH services of Doordarshan.
It is to be noted that the subscriber base stood at 69.57 million in March 2021, which decreased to 66.92 million in March 2022, which subsequently decreased to 65.25 million in March 2023.
Overall, the DTH sector has overall lost 7.6 million subscribers in the last three years.
As per TRAI, a total of 4 pay DTH service providers were there in India during the period ending March 31, 2024.
Tata Play has a 32.53% market share of total net pay active subscribers, followed by Airtel with 28.45%, Dish TV India at 20.46%, and Sun Direct with 18.57% as of March 31, 2024.
TRAI also noted that pay DTH operators lost 0.66 million subscribers during the October–November festive quarter, last year. This was despite properties like ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2023 raking in a record TV viewership of 518 million.
For the quarter ending December 31, the pay DTH base of the four private DTH operators declined to 63.52 million from 64.18 million in the trailing quarter.
The report also highlighted that the total number of internet subscribers increased by over 8.3%. From 881.25 million at the end of March 2023 it increased to 954.40 million at the end of March 2024.
Also, out of a total of 954.40 million internet subscribers, the number of broadband subscribers is 924.07 million and the number of narrowband subscribers stands at 30.34 million at the end of March 2024.
That apart, the number of telephone subscribers in India increased from 1,172.34 million at the end of March 2023 to 1,199.28 million at the end of March 2024, registering a yearly rate of growth 2.30%.
The overall tele-density in India increased from 84.51% at the end of March 2023 to 85.69% at the end of Mar 2024 at a yearly rate of growth of 1.39%.
Telephone subscriptions in urban areas increased from 653.71 million at the end of March 2023 to 665.38 million at the end of March 2024 at a yearly rate of growth of 1.79%. However, urban tele-density declined from 133.81% at the end of March 2023 to 133.72% at the end of March 2024 with yearly rate of decline of 0.07%
