(28 April 2009 8:15 pm)

NEW DELHI: Dish TV is targeting a revenue of Rs 12.5 billion for the fiscal ended 31 March 2010, a jump of 70 per cent from the earlier-year period.

The leading DTH service provider also plans to mop up 2.5 million subscribers during the course of the year, taking its customer base to 7.5 million. As reported first in Indiantelevision.com, Dish TV had added two million subscribers for the previous fiscal to become the first Indian DTH operator to cross the five-million mark.

"We are looking at a subscription revenue of Rs 9.6 billion. Including carriage fee, rental and other revenue streams, we should end up FY'10 with a turnover of Rs 12.5 billion," Dish TV COO Salil Kapoor tells Indiantelevision.com.

Dish TV posted a growth of 78 per cent to close FY'09 with a turnover of Rs 7.4 billion.

Net loss for the Essel Group company is expected to stand at Rs 4.75 billion. Dish TV is yet to announce its fourth-quarter results for the fiscal ended 31 March 2009.

"Our net loss will surely come down from the FY'09 fiscal. We are not in a position yet to talk about what the exact loss will be for the current fiscal," says Kapoor.

Dish TV has an annual budget of Rs 1 billion towards advertising and marketing. The DTH service provider has launched its new campaign featuring its brand ambassador Shah Rukh Khan.

"We will be spending Rs 50-60 million for this particular campaign. This will include above the line activities like radio, print and outdoor," says Kapoor.

Dish TV's ARPUs are at Rs 145 and the churn rate is under one per cent. "We have 20 per cent of our subscriber base coming from the southern states. We expect our ARPUs to go up this fiscal," says Kapoor.

Dish TV repositions brands, streamlines packages

Dish TV has changed its brand positioning from ‘Wish karo, Dish karo’ to ‘Sabse zyaada’.

“In a multi-player scenario it is imperative to create a differentiated brand strategy and Dish TV has repositioned its brand with ‘Sabse zyaada’ - a positioning that clearly brings together the differentiation of maximum entertainment and maximum number of channels and maximum value offered by Dish TV in a powerful way,” avers Kapoor.

The DTH operator has also streamlined its packages, bringing it down from 20 to three plans - Silver (with 135 channels at Rs 113 plus taxes), Gold (with 155 channels at Rs 190 plus taxes) and Platinum (with 185 channels at Rs 283 plus taxes).

The DTH operator has added 15 channels in the new Silver package, 20 in Gold and 10 in Platinum packages.

These packs offer price protection to all existing subscribers and will be applicable with immediate effect. The DTH operator will provide extra channels to existing subscribers at no added cost until their due recharge/renewal date.

For Dish TV subscribers, Colors is available at Rs 20. The two UTV channels - UTV Movies and Bindass Movies - are priced at Rs 25.

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Dish TV adds 2 mn subscribers in FY'09, crosses 5-mn mark