MUMBAI: After a consistent upward trend, total active DTH pay-TV subscribers in India dropped slightly during the January-March quarter this year. The overall active subscriber numbers dropped to 67.53 million from 67.56 million.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (TRAI) quarterly performance indicator indicated that in 2017, six pay DTH operators had added 4.91 million net pay active subscribers reaching the base of 67.56 million.

While there were six DTH players earlier, the merger of Dish TV and Videocon d2h reduced the number to five. Following the merger Dish TV has the lion's share standing at 43 per cent. Tata Sky (25 per cent), Airtel DTH (21 per cent), Sun Direct (10 per cent) and Reliance Digital TV (one per cent) follow the leader with respective shares. Tata Sky’s share has increased but Reliance Digital TV’s share has dropped.

The quarter had 308 pay channels including 213 SD pay TV channels and 95 HD pay TV channels as reported by 49 broadcasters. Five new pay channels including Zee Cinemalu HD, Zee Telugu HD, Zee Kannada HD, Colors Tamil HD, and Discovery Jeet HD commenced during the quarter ending 31 March 2018.

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