Direct-to-home (DTH) operator DishTV has added 186,000 net subscribers during the quarter ended June 2017 (Q1 FY18), an increase of 12.72% from the165,000 subscribers added in the preceding quarter. With this, Dish TV’s total number of subscribers now stands at 15.7 million. The management added subscriptions could have been higher but the Ramadan festival moderated addition. "Ramadan during the last month of the first quarter moderated subscriber additions and recharges which otherwise could have been even stronger. Unlike fiscal 2017, this year the period of Ramadan fell completely in the first quarter as against a Q1-Q2 split last year. Involvement in the GST transition process during the last few days of the quarter also diluted some managerial attention towards the business," the press release read. Video streaming platforms DishTV mentioned that it has started renegotiating with broadcasters for its content costs due the presence of OTT platforms (to be read as video streaming applications). The company added that it has "achieved success in reducing costs with one of the large broadcasters recently" but did not give further details on the same. Note that DishTV has not given a separate line item in its financials for programming and content costs but it now says that its operating costs stood at Rs 343.17 for the quarter. In the preceding quarter, DishTV spent Rs 232.37 crore for programming and content. However, DishTV's managing director Jawahar Goel sought to allay fears of video streaming platforms eating into the business. “New technology would generally replace the traditional…
