Pay-TV Struggles, But It's Too Early to Write It Off

The Indian pay TV industry has gone below the 100 million total paid subscriber mark ever since private satellite TV started its operations three decades ago, but the top broadcast industry leaders still believe in its resilience.

According to experts, the number of pay-TV subscribers has reduced to around 95 million homes from 120 million just a few years back due to competition from OTT platforms along with free DTH services like DD Free Dish from Prasar Bharati and YouTube by Google.

The availability of high-quality sports and entertainment content via streaming for free also made a noticeable dent in the pay-TV industry.

Jio Star vice-chairman Uday Shankar stated in an interview, “TV remains a dominant force in India and reports of its demise are premature. He also stated that there is a significant opportunity to reinvent, revitalise, and make TV stronger and healthier.”

“The decline in pay-TV numbers isn’t the full story. What really matters is the overall TV universe, including free TV (DD Free Dish), and that hasn’t come down. In a value-conscious market like India, if consumers don’t see enough value in pay-TV but find reasonable value in free TV, they’ll naturally migrate to free TV,” he added.

According to Tata Play's CEO, Harit Nagpal, the entire pay television industry enjoyed growth for over ten years, but for the last three or four years, it has been significantly challenged because pay content-including drama and sports-become offered on real-time media for free.

“Sagging industry revenues led to cutting investments on content, denting growth even more. For the industry to grow again, windowing of content, just as cinema does, and doubling down on content to fight UGC will help,” he added.

YouTube, India’s largest free video streaming platform, is also having a major impact on the pay-TV market, cutting across audience segments.

Sony Pictures Networks India CEO Gaurav Banerjee, expressed that the pay-TV market is very important for all broadcasters, including Sony, and as a content provider to distribution platform operators, it can only ensure that the content it creates resonates with audiences.

“Pay-TV is going through a challenging phase globally and not just in India. But I think the pay-TV story in India will be different due to its affordability, and that will give pay-TV legs in this country,” he noted.

Further, Dish TV CEO Manoj Dobhal stated, “Why will customers pay for TV channels if broadcasters are making premium content free on digital besides bundling content with telco packs? The price increase by broadcasters is also hurting pay-TV as customers today have multiple options like OTT, YouTube, and DD Free Dish.”

Pay-TV’s decline started with the implementation of the new tariff order and the subsequent climbing in TV bills, followed by the Covid pandemic a year later, which accelerated consumer migration towards streaming platforms, said PWC Media and Entertainment Senior Advisor Rajesh Sethi.