BENGALURU: In its earnings release today, India’s largest DTH operator, Dish TV Limited (Dish TV) informed the bourses that its net subscriber base in Q3-2015 had gone up to 1.25 crore, the company says that it has added a net of 4.16 lakh subscribers in this quarter. In Q3-2014, the company has added net 2.2 lakh subscribers in Q3-2014 and 3.78 lakhs subscribers in Q2-2015. The company says further that its average revenue per user (arpu) is Rs.177, versus an arpu Rs 166 in Q3-2014 and Rs 172 in Q2-2015.

Note:  100,00,000 = 100 Lakh  = 1 crore = 10 million

Dish TV’s total income from operations (TIO) has gone up by 16.5 per cent in Q3-2015 to Rs 713.88 crore from Rs 612.82 crore in Q3-2014 and was 6.2 per cent more than Rs 672.35 crore in Q2-2015. During 9M-2015, Dish TV’s TIO at Rs 2026.93 crore was 13.6 per cent more than the Rs 1783.78 crore in 9M-2014.

 The company has reported a lower loss of Rs 2.87 crore in Q3-2015 as compared to a loss of Rs 38.25 crore in Q3-2014 and a loss of Rs 15.07 crore in Q2-2015. In 9M-2015, Dish TV’s loss at Rs 33.98 crore was less than half the loss of Rs 84.63 crore in 9M-2014.

The company reported subscription revenue for the quarter was Rs 655.4 crore up 17.4 per cent y-o-y.

Let us look at the other figures reported by Dish TV :-

Dish TV’s Total expenditure (TE) in Q3-2015 at Rs 684.26 crore (95.9 per cent of TIO) was 8.5 per cent more than the Rs 630.68 crore (102.9 per cent of TIO) in Q3-2014 and 3.4 per cent more than the Rs 661.92 crore (98.5 per cent of TIO) in Q2-2015. In 9M-2015, TE at Rs 1975.07 crore (97.4 per cent of TIO) was 8.5 per cent more than the Rs 1819.87 crore (102 per cent of TIO) in 9M-2014.

The company’s programming content and other costs (programming cost) in Q3-2015 at Rs 198.86 crore (27.9 per cent of TIO) was almost the same as the Rs 198.87 crore (32.5 per cent of TIO) in Q3-2014 and 3.1 per cent more than the Rs 192.87 crore (28.7 per cent of TIO) in Q2-2015. 9M-2015 programming cost at Rs 593.13 crore (29.3 per cent of TIO) was 2.8 per cent more than the Rs 576.87 crore (32.3 per cent of TIO) in 9M-2014.

Dish TV paid 18.7 per cent higher license fees at Rs 75.35 crore (10.6 per cent of TIO) in Q3-2015 as compared to the Rs 63.48 crore (10.4 per cent of TIO) in Q3-2014 and 7.8 per cent more than the Rs 69.87 crore (10.4 per cent of TIO) in the immediate trailing quarter. License Fees in 9M-2015 at Rs 210.66 crore (10.4 percent of TIO) was 13.5 percent more than the Rs 185.56 crore (10.4 percent of TIO) in the corresponding period of last year.

The company’s commission expense at Rs 69.07 crore (9.7 per cent of TIO) was 37.1 per cent higher than the Rs 50.37 crore (8.2 per cent of TIO) in Q4-2013 and 13.7 per cent more than the Rs 60.74 crore (9 per cent of TIO) in Q2-2015. Commission expense in 9M-2015 rose 39.3 percent to Rs 185.33 crore (9.1 percent of TIO) from Rs 133.02 crore (7.5 percent of TIO) in 9M-2014.

 Dish TV’s other selling and distribution expense for Q3-2015 at Rs 43.99 crore (6.2 per cent of TIO) was 26.8 per cent more than the Rs 34.69 crore (5.7 per cent of TIO) in Q3-2014 and 18.2 per cent lower than the Rs 53.8 crore (8 per cent of TIO) in Q2-2015. In 9M-2015, other selling and distribution expense t Rs 135.65 crore (6.7 per cent of TIO) was 17.2 per cent more than the Rs 115.76 crore (6.5 per cent of TIO) in 9M-2014.

The company’s finance costs is Q3-2015 increased 59 per cent to Rs 47.86 crore (6.7 per cent of TIO) from Rs 30.10 crore (4.9 per cent of TIO) in Q2-2014 and was 12.6 per cent more than the Rs 42.51 crore (6.3 per cent of TIO) in Q2-2015. The company’s finance costs in 9M-2015 increased 29.8 per cent to Rs 129.84 crore (6.4 per cent of TIO) from Rs 100.04 crore (5.6 per cent of TIO) in 9M-2014.

 “Dish TV recorded marked improvements in its key financials while maintaining market supremacy during the third quarter of fiscal 2015. Overall, the DTH industry led by Dish TV recorded a healthy 29 percent y-o-y growth in gross additions compared to the corresponding quarter last fiscal,” said Dish TV chairman Subhash Chandra.

Highlighting Dish TV’s third quarter performance Dish TV managing director Jawahar Goel said, “We continued to strengthen our reach in phase 3 and 4 towns much ahead of the government mandated revised deadline for digitisation in those markets. Our bouquet of offerings including fully loaded sports packs and High Definition (HD) packages helped us fill in the expectation gap in phase 1 and 2 households as well. The recently launched ‘Zing’ has been a successful product and now caters to eight regional markets with the latest being Tamil Nadu.”