MUMBAI: Dish TV has narrowed its net loss as subscriber growth stays bullish, pushing up operational income for the three months ending September.

The direct-to-home (DTH) company has posted a net loss of Rs 561.34 million, significantly lower than Rs 1.54 billion in the earlier-year period.

Amid an addition of 0.41 million subscribers during the quarter, Dish TV posted a 48.59 per cent jump in total income to Rs 2.57 billion.

Dish TV expects the subscriber ramp up to continue in the third quarter. In the month of October, the DTH operator has mopped up 300000 subscribers.

Says Dish TV chairman Subhash Chandra, “We have achieved robust growth in tough market conditions. Our focus on operational excellence and internal measures such as cost optimisation has supported the results. We also continued with our investment programmes to support our growth."

Dish TV has kept expenses flat at Rs 3.07 billion, as compared to Rs 3.10 billion in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal.

The pressure on ARPU (average revenue per user) continues, falling to Rs 139 from Rs 142 in the trailing quarter. In the second quarter of FY‘09, the ARPU stood higher at Rs 150.

The average subscriber acquisition cost rose to Rs 2635, up from Rs 2487 in the trailing quarter. For the second quarter of FY‘09, the customer acquisition price was at Rs 2601.

Dish TV said it would continue to focus on increasing ARPUs, value added services, commercial sales (hotels, restaurants, pubs, clubs, malls), brand building and penetration.

Dish TV has a sales and distribution infrastructure of over 800 distributors and 48,000 dealers across 6600 towns.