After recording consecutive deficits since 2019, dish tv CEO Manoj Doval believes the company will start reporting net profit from FY25 onwards. Amid troubles between Dish Board and Yes Bank, Doval maintained that the company has continued to invest in brick-and-mortar stores over the past few quarters. Last week, the company finally launched its Dish Smart+ service to take on Airtel, Jio and Tata Play. This service combines TV channels and his OTT services into a single bundle.talk to business line At the launch, Doval explained the DTH operator's ambitions. excerpt.
What is the difference between Dish TV Smart+ and competing services offered by Airtel, Tata Play and others?
Most competitors do not automatically offer blended products to their customers. You have to choose Linear TV or choose OTT+Linear service. We offer all our customers aggregation between his OTT and Linear from the beginning. Therefore, consumers do not have to pay any additional fees to avail her OTT content. We give our customers more flexibility in choosing which OTT platforms to include in this plan. This is the first product on the market.
Broadcasters had to revise their rates based on NTO 2.0. Under what conditions is this implemented at distributors? Have you passed these price increases on to your customers? How has this affected ARPU?
Most of the price increases have been completed. But we absorbed 80 to 90 percent of the price increase, which was not passed on to our customers. So prices are not necessarily going up compared to a few years ago, maybe only by ₹10 to ₹15. ARPU hasn't necessarily changed either, and has been pretty stable over the past two years. A way to reduce price increases for customers is to remove extra channels from the bundle. Then the price of the entire bundle will be the same as before.
Currently, all DTH platforms offer hybrid OTT bundles, but large platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime are rarely included in these bundles. This is different from when carriers, i.e. international streaming companies, bundle their services with their plans. Will we see bundles between DTH plans and streaming companies soon?
Their strategy at the moment is not to allow bundling with DTH companies. The reason for bundling telecommunications companies is that they are not necessarily competitors. However, I believe that as smart TVs become more popular, this bundling will be done by his DTH operators as well. It's just a matter of a few years.
How has corporate governance between shareholders and Dish TV promoters affected day-to-day management?
Efforts are continuing on both sides to reach a resolution. We don't know about those talks. We are fully customer oriented and these conflicts have not affected our day-to-day operations in the slightest. The situation is even better than it was a few years ago. Second, we have invested heavily in technology. As a result, we have generated enough EBITDA to cover capital expenditures. We do not borrow money to make these investments. We are a company that waived all debt on our books in June 2023.
Will Dish TV be profitable in FY2025?
I can assure you that this is the case. This year could be a turning point for Dish and the DTH industry as a whole. Even if this year is slightly positive, there is clearly forward momentum in FY25. We also have a number of new initiatives underway.