No tan tana tan with DTH!

The DTH industry, which has invested Rs 250 billion to build scale into their business model, is badly hurting their pockets. Dragged down by low ARPUs (average revenue per user), high customer acquisition costs and exorbitant taxation, DTH companies are bleeding profusely.

As quoted in media, The DTH sector has piled up a subscriber base of 17.5 million over the first five years. The total investment stands at Rs 250 billion and all of us are bleeding," said Vikram Kaushik, managing director and chief executive officer, Tata Sky.

The under-reporting by the cable TV operators is keeping ARPUs artifically low and hurting everybody. "This is the crux of the problem and Trai has not understood this," said Kaushik, who heads a DTH service that has the "best" and the "healthiest" ARPU among all the operators in the country.

Sun Direct, which has the fastest run in subscriber growth, has an ARPU of under Rs 100 as against Tata Sky's Rs 200.