It’s not just telecom, but also TV distribution space where Sunil Bharti Mittal has decided to give a tough fight to Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio.
As Ambani’ Jio has taken control of the two largest cable operators – Hathway Cable & Datacom and DEN Networks — Mittal has initiated talks with Dish TV, to merge his DTH business, housed under Airtel Digital TV, said two people with direct knowledge of the development.
“The talks are at exploratory stage,” said one of the persons. “Idea is to consolidate operations and give a strong fight to Reliance Jio. Together, Airtel Digital TV and Dish TV will be a giant.” If Mittal succeeds, the combined entity will be the world’s largest TV distribution company with over 38 million subscribers and 61% DTH market share in India.
Replying to an ET query, an Airtel spokesperson said, “As a policy, we do not comment on market speculation.”
A Dish TV spokesperson also said that the company “does not comment on market speculations.”
It was in March last year when Dish TV completed merger of Videocon d2h with itself, kick-starting the consolidation in the Indian DTH space, the only market with six (five pay and one free) DTH players.
Airtel, in the past, had tried to sell its DTH business to Tata Sky, but the two parties couldn’t reach an agreement. Later, in December 2017, Airtel sold 20% stake in Bharti Telemedia, the holding company of Airtel Digital TV, to private equity firm Warburg Pincus for $350 million (Rs 2,258 crore), valuing the DTH business at Rs 11,300 crore.
Dish TV’s market cap as of March 15 was at Rs 7,263.75 crore, down from the estimated combined valuation of Rs 17,000 crore at the time of merger last year. Tata Sky’s valuation is estimated between Rs 11,000-12,000 crore.
As per Trai report on DTH market, as of September 2018, Dish TV (combined with Videocon d2h) leads with a 37% market share, followed by Tata Sky (27%) and Airtel Digital TV (24%). As of quarter ended December 31st, 2018, Dish TV had 23.6 million subscribers and it reported operating revenue of Rs 1,517.4 crore, and EBIDTA of Rs 517.6 crore. Dish TV’s average revenue per user was at Rs 200.
Promoters own 60.8% stake in the company, while pledged holdings are worth Rs 3,625 crore.
Airtel Digital TV, meanwhile, had 15 million subscribers as of Q3, FY19. Its revenue from the DTH business was at Rs 1,033 crore, while EBITDA and margins were at Rs 382.6 crore and 37%, respectively, during the quarter.
Airtel Digital TV’s ARPU was higher at Rs 231. Interestingly, earlier this month, Jawahar Goel, CMD at Dish TV, and part of the Essel Group promoter family, was given additional responsibility as editor-in-chief of Zee Media Corp, which houses news channels of the Subhash Chandra-promoted ZEE Group.
Subhash Chandra, Goel’s brother and chairman of Essel Group, is already in talks to sell up to half of promoters’ stake in Zee Entertainment Enterprises.
Source: Economic Times