The Hindu Business Line : Dish TV reports Rs 251-cr loss

New Delhi, June 28 Essel Groups’ Direct-to-Home business Dish TV announced a net loss of Rs 251.33 crore for the financial year ended March 31, almost three times more than its loss of Rs 87.51 crore during the previous financial year.

The company’s operating revenues increased six-fold (506.86 per cent) to Rs 190.93 crore as against Rs 31.46 crore reported the previous financial year.

The first to venture into DTH services, Dish TV was listed on the stock exchange in April this year. The company’s financial performance for the quarter is not available.

Expenditure increased three-folds (228.65 per cent) to Rs 376.10 crore (Rs 114.44 crore).

Pay channels

At Rs 155.62 crore, the cost of pay channels accounts for about 40 per cent of the company’s expenditure during the year. According to Mr Jawahar Goel, Managing Director, DishTV will turn EBIDTA positive in 2009, having considered a competitive environment with five players. Reliance’s Bluemagic, Sun Networks’ Sun Direct, and Bharti’s DTH ventures are among the bigger players expected to rollout their ventures soon.

“We have tied up investments of $100 million (Rs 407 crore),” said Mr Goel. Refusing to share details, he added that they would comply to FDI and other SEBI norms prescribed for the industry.

Dish TV plans to focus on increasing value of its services by taking the current number of channels available from 170 to more than 200 by the year end.

The company is to also introduce other “innovative products” similar as the one that it offers to passengers of Kingfisher Airlines. The company is also planning to expand its movie-on-demand library and increase it average revenue per user, currently at Rs 240.