MUMBAI: TRAI in its annual report has stated that in the last ten years a substantial number of HD pay television channels have been launched by broadcasters. As on 31 March 2019, there are a total of 99 operational HD channels.

Let’s have look at detailed description below:

Internet and Broadband subscribers

The Internet subscriber base in the country as on 31 March 2019 was 636.73 million in comparison to 493.96 million in March 2018. The total broadband subscriber base of the country as on 31 March 2019 stood at 563.31 million whereas it was 412.60 million as of 31 March 2018.

The broadcasting and cable TV services sector and FM Radio services continue to exhibit growth over the two decades. Equivalent to the growth in the subscriber base, the number of platforms & service providers has also increased. The broadcasting sector comprises of cable TV services, DTH services, terrestrial TV services, HITS services, IPTV services, and broadcast radio services.

Satellite TV channels

Currently, there are 902 private satellite TV channels permitted by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting by the end of the financial year 2018-19, out of which, 229 are SD pay-TV channels and 99 are HD Pay TV channels. The number of Standard Definition (SD) pay-TV channels have grown from 147 in the year 2010 to 229 in 2019.

DTH Services

Ever since its introduction in the year 2003, Indian DTH service has displayed a phenomenal growth. DTH has attained a net active subscriber base of around 72.44 million. At the end of March 2019, there are 5 pay DTH service providers catering to this subscriber base. The database rose to 72.44 in 2019 as compared to 67.53 in 2018.

Apart from an increase in the availability of conventional TV channels, the pay DTH operators have continued to add several innovative offerings and value-added services (VAS) such as movie-on-demand, gaming, shopping, education etc.

Cable TV

The Cable TV segment is the largest of the TV service sector with an estimated subscriber base of around 103 million subscribers

 As per the statistics, the pay TV universe consists of around 103 million Cable TV subscribers, 72.44 million active DTH subscribers and 1.5 million HITS subscribers. Where the terrestrial TV network of Doordarshan alone covers about 92 per cent of India’s population connected via a vast network of terrestrial transmitters. The TV broadcasting sector includes 350 broadcasters, out of which, 39 are pay broadcasters.

 Talking about the television distribution side there are 1469 Multi-System Operators (MSOs) coming under the wings with Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB), an estimated number of 60,000 cable operators, 5 pay DTH operators, 2 HITS operators, and a few IPTV operators. Apart from this public service broadcaster-Doordarshan, also provides a free-to-air DTH service in India.