Paid DTH subscribers fall by 75 lakh in a year as viewers move to OTT and IPTV

The past year has not been good for companies offering paid DTH television services in the country. Around 75 lakh (7.51 million) subscribers of these operators dropped out in this period. In other words, 75 lakh people decided to disconnect their DTH service within a year.

The impact is visible not only on television but also on radio. Private FM radio stations saw a fall in advertising revenue in the April-June quarter. This shows that the old habit of watching television, and its appeal, is gradually fading.

According to the latest report of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the number of subscribers of the four main DTH operators in the country fell by 13.4 per cent. A year earlier they had more than 5.6 crore subscribers. By 30 June 2026 the figure had dropped to about 4.85 crore. The decline has not yet stopped.

What is behind it? The biggest reasons are cheap high-speed broadband internet and the growing popularity of OTT platforms. People today prefer to watch the content of their choice whenever and wherever they want, whereas on DTH they have to watch fixed shows at fixed times. In addition, smart TVs and smart sticks are drawing people towards IPTV and smart app packages that run directly on the internet, and these suit budgets better than DTH recharges. Those who only want to watch free channels are moving to DD Free Dish. This too is bringing down DTH subscriber numbers.

Among the operators, the report says Tata Play is moving towards becoming the largest, with 1.48 crore subscribers. Bharti Telemedia is second with 1.35 crore subscribers. Sun Direct is third with 1.09 crore subscribers and Dish TV India fourth with 2 lakh 10 thousand subscribers.

One point to note is that these figures do not include subscribers of Prasar Bharati's free DTH service, DD Free Dish. Selected operators on the television distribution platform reported 9.67 crore active subscribers as of 30 June. This also counts subscribers who stayed inactive for 90 days or whose service was suspended for some time.

Of this total, DTH accounted for 4.85 crore subscribers. Cable (multi-system operators, or MSOs) came second with 3.72 crore. Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) had 62.1 lakh subscribers, while headend-in-the-sky (HITS) operators reported 47.2 lakh subscribers.

In the IPTV segment, which delivers TV channels and video content over the internet, Bharti Airtel was first with 40.9 lakh subscribers. Hathway Digital was second with 12.8 lakh users. It should also be noted that these figures do not cover all companies and are based only on information supplied by selected operators.