The Hindu Business Line : Dish TV in talks with FIIs to raise funds

New Delhi, July 27 Dish TV India Ltd, the Direct-to- Home (DTH) service provider of the Essel Group, is in talks with foreign institutional investors to raise money for future investment.

“We are in talks with a few people. We are not looking for any strategic partner but investors who will make a 3-5 year commitment,” said Mr Jawahar Goel, Managing Director. The existing FII stake in the company is at 3.64 per cent.

DTH service providers are incurring subscriber acquisition costs and spending more than a hundred crore annually in marketing. “Our per customer acquisition cost is about Rs 2,000 and this investment will continue as we wrap up customers,” said Mr Goel. Dish TV’s annual marketing spend is about Rs 120 crore.

The company expects to invest more than Rs 800 crore in the next few years and is considering a Forward Public Offering beyond October, amongst other options.

‘One PC-One TV’

Dish TV has launched a new Set Top Box (STB) that can convert the PC into a television set. With this, it expects to target the ‘one PC-one TV’ homes of its 22 lakh subscriber base and offices. “Television consumption in offices, driven by news, business news and sports has increased significantly and we believe this is an additional market for us,” said Mr Goel.

At Rs 4,150, the Visual Graphic Array (VGA) box is a thousand rupees more than its existing STB and can also be used with the normal television. The company plans to sell the box in partnership with TVSE, a computers and peripherals distributor.