Distribution of the direct to home (DTH) market in India 2023, by operator

Tata Play, a company within the Tata Group, recorded the highest share in the DTH market in India over the first half of 2023, with roughly 33 percent. The operator was ahead of the Bharti Telemedia-owned operator, Airtel Digital TV, during the measured time period. Contrary to the declining trend of pay DTH subscriptions in the previous years, DTH operators secured 250 thousand new subscribers in 2023.

The future of the Indian television 

Similar to the global trend, the television viewership across India has been on a decline in recent years. Even still, television continues to remain the country's largest media. The number of TVs in Indian households has even been projected to increase by 2026, with continued subscriptions for paid TV-content. While free TV and digital streaming are on the rise, cable TV and DTH still persist as the main types of active television subscription in India.

Money generation on TV

  India is one of the countries with the highest numbers of pay TV subscribers globally, coming only second to China. Asia as a region in general holds arguably the most impactful market for global pay TV subscriptions and its revenue growth. But pay TV is not the only cash-flow segment of the television market. Although subscriptions for pay TV are still the main generator of revenue of the TV industry in India, advertisement revenue is catching on. The overall distribution of ad expenditure across India showed that television remains one of the preferred places for advertising.