Direct-to-Home (DTH) player Airtel Digital TV, which said it has crossed the 10 million subscriber mark, believes digitisation and hi-definition connections will be its key growth drivers.

With 10 million active subscribers, the company said it now has about 25 per cent market share in India’s DTH sector, adding that it managed this “feat” within six years of operations and despite being the fifth entrant.

Shashi Arora, CEO, Airtel Digital TV, said, “A large chunk of our growth today is coming from smaller towns and cable dark areas. Nearly two-third of our new customers are from non-metros, semi-urban areas, including remote parts of the country.”

Arora said the next two phases of digitisation of TV services will cover mostly rural and cable dark regions and believes that with an established infrastructure, the DTH sector will have a distinct advantage over cable TV companies. “We have been adding about one million new subscribers a year. In the next two phases of digitisation, we expect this number to grow significantly, and a lot more growth from smaller towns and cities,” he added. Airtel digital TV plans to add 12 channels soon.

Arora said growth in HD subscriber base will also be a key focus area. “Given the proliferation of smart television sets, the HD market has witnessed a strong growth and our HD base has doubled in the last one year. We currently offer 27-odd HD channels and hope to grow it to 50 HD channels this year,” he added.

The government’s Make in India programme is also serving to encourage manufacturing of indigenous set-top-boxes. While most players buy STBs from global vendors, some also manufacture them in India. Asked about indigenous set top boxes, Arora said, “One of the key priorities for us is to ensure that we get STBs at competitive rates. The Indian consumer is not willing to pay beyond Rs 1,500-1,600 for a set top box. If we get competitively priced STBs within India, we will look at it,” he added.

The company has been introducing a host of features to woo consumers, such as universal remote to operate the TV and STB, recording facility across all kinds of STBs among others. It recently collaborated with Samsung to enable television consumers to use an Airtel digital TV viewing card for its DTH services.

Arora said the company is focused on growing its consumer base across regions, adding that the company continues to be among the top two DTH players in all States.

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