Airtel Digital TV, Dish TV explore merger options: report
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Rebecca Hawkes
| 19 March 2019

Bharti Telemedia’s direct-to-home (DTH) company Airtel Digital TV is reportedly in exploratory talks with rival Dish TV India for what is being described as a ‘mega merger’ by the Economic Times.

The merger, if realised, would create a satellite TV platform with over 38.6 million subscribers and a 63% share of India’s DTH market.

The talks follow the acquisition by Mukesh Ambani’s **Reliance Jio of controlling stakes in cable TV companies DEN Networks and Hathway Cable and Datacom. Although the company is new to thetelevision distribution sector, Jio has successfully disrupted India’s mobile sector and is now planning to do the same for fixed line broadband and IPTV services.

Currently, Dish TV India is the biggest TV distribution company in the country with 23.6 million subscribers at the end of 2018. Airtel Digital TV registered 15 million subscribers as of the third quarter (Q3) in the 2019 financial year,

Dish TV, which merged with Videocon d2h in March 2018, held a 41% market share in Q2 2019, while Airtel Digital TV held a 22% share, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

Dish TV and Airtel Digital TV have each refused to comment on the merger speculation in the Indian daily business newspaper.