MUMBAI: Industry watchdog the Telecom Regulatory Authority  of India (TRAI) released its quarterly Indian Telecom Services Performance Indicator Report yesterday  for the quarter ending 30 June 2024 which is compiled by collecting information from service providers. And there are no real surprises as far as broadcasters and DPOs are concerned.

The report has revealed that 912 satellite channels have been allowed to uplink/downlink/do both by the ministry of information & broadcasting as of 30 June 2024. This compare to 924  private satellite TV channels which had got permission in end March 2024 and 903 in end June 2023.  So, it appears there has been a drop in permitted channels. Of these 912, 902 are available for downlinking in India. 362 of the 902 channels are pay TV channels as of end June 2024, while the rest are free to air. There has been not much of a growth in terms of HD services with the figure hovering around the 103 channel mark for the past many quarters; the number stands at 103 HD channels in end June 2024. The SD channels too have stayed put at the 255-259 mark; with the latest number being 259.

199 of the SD channels are priced between between less than Rs 1 and Rs 12, while 37 HD channels are priced in that range. 42 SD channels and 54 HD channels are priced at Rs 19 and just two SD channels and five HD channels are priced more than Rs 19. So much for the watchdog’s fears that broadcast networks would price their channels too high.

The largest genre of pay TV channels is represented by general entertainment channels which is at 115 followed by movies with 72 and news & current affairs which has 65 pay channels.

On the DPO side, TRAI  has reported that 11 MSOs and 1 HITS operator have more than a million subs as of end June 2024. 

Active DTH subs have expanded to 62.17 million as against 61.97 in end March 2024.