India might soon become the country with the largest DTH subscriber base ahead of the United States, an industry official said.
“As at June-end, the DTH subscriber base in India stood at 23.5 million, which is equivalent to the size of the markets in other countries. By this year-end, we will leave the U.S. behind, which has got 32 million subscriber base, making us the largest DTH country,” Bharat Business Channel Limited (BBCL) Chief Executive Officer, Anil Khera, told PTI here.
The BBCL is the DTH broadcast arm of the multi-billion Videocon Group.
There are currently seven DTH broadcast service providers in the country with a combined revenue of around $2 billion.
The industry is clocking an 18 per cent growth this year, Mr. Khera said. Around 8.5-lakh new customers are being added to the DTH platform every month.
The industry expects to register around 11-12 million new customers this year, he said.
“We are quite hopeful that once the festival season sets in with Onam in August, followed by Ganesh Chaturthi, Durga Puja, Diwali and Christmas, we will definitely see 12 million new customers this year,” Mr. Khera said.
Last month itself, close to one million, precisely 9.55-lakh subscribers, were added, he said.
