Dish TV Revenue At Rs. 3043M; Net Loss Up 5.7% QoQ; ARPU Up To Rs. 139

The FIFA World Cup gave DTH company Dish TV a golden quarter with additions soaring in June as the country scrambled to buy DTH connections and watch (or record?) the matches. Dish added 0.64 million new connections in the quarter, taking the company’s subscriber base to 7.5 million users. There are 23 million DTH users in the country. In the month of June itself, 240,000 DTH connections were activated, 83% more than June 2009.

Consolidated net losses for the company have, however, gained 5.7% sequentially to Rs. 631.79 million because revenues increased marginally (0.4%) to Rs. 3043 million.

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Its EBITDA has fallen sequentially from Rs. 349 million to Rs. 322 million.

Adds 0.64M; Average Subscriber Acquisition Cost Falls; ARPU Up

The company added 0.64 million subscribers in the quarter, 0.2 million more than it did in the previous quarter. While it generally adds 2 million new users in a year, this fell to 1.8 million in FY2010.

Dish continues to hold onto 33% market share this quarter. Other players in this market include Tata Sky, Reliance ADAG’s BIG TV, Airtel Digital TV, Sun Direct, DD Direct and Videcon D2H.

ARPU (average revenue per user) was back up at Rs. 139 – it was Rs. 135 in December quarter and Rs. 138 in the March quarter.

Dish TV reports that the average subscriber acquisition cost was down to Rs. 2147 from Rs. 2383 last quarter – note that its expected average is Rs. 2500.

HDTV In Lux Trains

The company has now upgraded the Live TV entertainment on Indian luxury trains – ‘Palace on Wheels’ and ‘Royal Rajasthan’ to High Definition programming.

8 channels were added to Dish TV’s platform during the quarter ended June 30, 2010, taking the total to 250 channels.

Expenses Up 20.4% YoY

Selling and distribution expenses have risen but depreciation/amortisation have offset it to reflect a 2.3 percent rise to Rs. 3609.9 million from the previous quarter, and 20.4% year on year.