Dish TV India Ltd
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Earnings Call Transcript

Earnings Call Transcript
2019-Q3

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Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the Dish TV Limited Q3 FY '19 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I now hand the conference over to Mr. Tarun Nanda. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

T
Tarun Nanda
Head of Investor Relations

Thank you. Very good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining us today to discuss the third quarter performance of Dish TV India Limited. To discuss the results, we have with us Mr. Jawahar Goel, Chairman and Managing Director of Dish TV India Limited; and the senior management team comprising of Mr. Anil Dua, the Group CEO; and Mr. Rajeev Dalmia, the Chief Financial Officer. We will start with a brief statement from Mr. Anil Dua, and we'll then open the discussion for questions and answers. I would like to quickly remind that anything that we say during this call that refers to our outlook for the future is a forward-looking statement that must be taken in the context of the risks that we face. I will now request Mr. Dua to address the participants.

A
Anil Kumar Dua
Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Tarun. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for joining us today for the third quarter FY '19 earnings call. I'm sure you would have had the opportunity to go through the results and the earnings release, both of which have been uploaded on the company's website. It was an eventful third quarter with The TRAI Tariff Order approaching its erstwhile deadline and regular business activity picking up speed during the festival period. Leading by example, Dish TV during the quarter leveraged months of proactive preparedness and results to kickstart processes that were designed to adopt the Regulation. We continue to believe that the Interconnection Regulation and the Tariff Order, as notified by TRAI, would lay down new norms for the television industry, ushering in an era of growth, transparency and nondiscrimination. Dish TV has added 142,000 net new subscribers during the quarter. Consolidated subscription revenues and operating revenues for the quarter was INR 14,126,000,000 and INR 15,174,000,000, respectively. EBITDA for the quarter stood at INR 5,176,000,000, up 4.0% Y-o-Y, with an EBITDA margin that was almost at historical high of 34.1%. That is up 330 basis points Y-o-Y.A delay in the implementation of the Tariff Order before the erstwhile deadline triggered a hesitation amongst subscribers, leading to a noticeable fall in recharges during the month of December. The trend is expected to reverse in February, as the Tariff Order gets implemented, and should become normal by the end of this quarter. Sustainability review of long-term tax had some impact on activations in select markets. That said, barring the fluctuations in December, the business delivered in line with expectations in the festival month of October and November. Phase 4 markets, increasing TV households, urbanization, growing multi-TV households, rural electrification and an improving consumer sentiment shall continue to remain the primary drivers of DTH subscriber addition.During the quarter, significant cost synergies were realized in transponder costs, call center expenses and programming costs. Overall cost of goods and services was down 4.2% Y-o-Y. Finance cost was lower 9.3% Y-o-Y. And debt repayments continued on schedule. The company aims to be debt-free in 2 years.Investment in brand building and marketing for both Dish TV and d2h brands continued, with both brands launching new brand campaigns for the festival season. Marketing expenses was therefore high during the quarter. We are optimistic about exiting FY '19 with a high single-digit growth in EBITDA, considering back-to-back cricketing action during the fourth quarter and further realization of synergies.The Dish SMRT Stick was launched during the quarter at an introductory price of INR 599 only. This device enables low cost and modular access to Internet-based services on Dish HD boxes. With the SMRT Stick, Dish TV's existing 3.5 million NXT HD boxes can become connected boxes overnight. I'm glad to inform that during the quarter, Watcho, the much awaited in-house OTT app of the company, was also launched in beta mode. With that, I would like to open the floor for the Q&A session.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] The first question is from the line of Abneesh Roy from Edelweiss.

A
Abneesh Roy
Senior Vice President

My first question is on your strategy of [ preponing ] the tariff implementation. So your key competitor, Tata Sky in fact tried to postpone it in the last minute. So what were the key benefit arising from this? What was the thought process? Because when I see your subscriber addition numbers or any of the other metrics, at least in Q3, the benefit seems -- it has not translated. So will it come in Q4? Will it come in Q1? What is the thought process?

A
Anil Kumar Dua
Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Abneesh. I think that's a very important question because Dish TV has been at the forefront even more than a year back when we launched Mera Apna Pack on Dish TV. And similarly, d2h had launched Mera Wala Pack. We had spoken about it that we are actually doing advanced implementation of Tariff Order. We've been waiting for it, and so we've been really welcoming it. Throughout the month of December, we've done several activities on both our platforms to make that known to everyone, especially to our customers. We've been educating customers all about channel. We've been sending them one-on-one messages. Now what has happened is that the date got moved from 29 December to 1st February. So that has led to some uncertainty, which is the net adds that you spoke about. But I think this is a short-term trend, which we should not worry about. In long term, we have maintained that this is very good for us, and we continue to believe in that.

A
Abneesh Roy
Senior Vice President

And sir, what's your sense on broader impact of the Tariff Order? Because when I check with customers, they say ARPU has not changed much, but number of channels for them has reduced. So net-net, customers doesn't seem to be gaining. So could there be backlash? Could there be some negative impact? Because ultimately, he's getting less number of channels and ARPU has not changed.

J
Jawahar Lal Goel
Chairman of the Board & MD

Abneesh, this is Jawahar here. Actually when we started Mera Apna Pack, a major -- there were 2 concerns about it. Number one, to familiarize the concept to the consumer. And Dish TV has familiarized its concept to almost 8 million subscribers to choose a channel on a-la-carte basis. This was not in existence in the country. That was -- that is one. Number two and so also to have our subscriber base a little bit more educated than any other direct-to-home that you are talking about. Number three, this is like a PWD role where you pass through there, there is a slowdown, there is a blockade and all these things. All you -- you drive your car on the national highway, NHAI road, where you pay some toll and then you enjoy the pleasure of driving. So this is the new regime, which the country is moving towards with. The consumer, of course, first they will decide how much they need to spend and which channels they need to subscribe. Of course, they were not subscribed to all the 4 [indiscernible] channel. Or somebody will -- or I am interested in English sometimes, so I will not go [indiscernible] to give you the context. So that way, the overall pool of the connected way for any particular broadcaster [indiscernible] into generating, that will get affected. And the broadcaster will reset their pricing. I -- the big 4 broadcasters, they are a responsible people. They have a big base, a big stake. So them I am not talking about. But I have seen [indiscernible] broadcaster who is running a channel by buying content on the right basis and then he is asking INR 3 per channel for each channel. The channel may not be asking [ 10 paisa ] per month. So these broadcasters will either will be muted out from the market or like another thing. You must have seen there are around 15, 20 Hindi movie channels are there. They are surviving on the connectivity as well as on the capacity to buy the content. And lower than the established player, I think they will go out in the market -- of the market. So like movie buying rights is being reset. So we have 2 ways. This is totally new regime, and it's like a woman is becoming first-time mother. Her life is going to change. Her [indiscernible] is going to [indiscernible]. The broadcasters, so far, they were collecting the subscription from DTH operator and getting [indiscernible] from the cable companies. So the per subscriber payout for the DTH company and for the cable, because the new model is different. Now this -- then this discrimination will go away. The new rule book will be written. So let us wait. We are on the market. We are in the [indiscernible]. We have a substantial side of the subscriber base. And we will convert this in a comparable content cost and the customer experience. Thank you.

A
Abneesh Roy
Senior Vice President

And Rajeev, my second question is on the marketing spend. So your group is, of course, known for very high focus on cost control. So now having 2 brands and when you are doing so much innovation, any thought process on having just 1 brand or merge the 2 brands and just advertise 1 single brand, any thought process -- anything which is preventing you from doing this?

J
Jawahar Lal Goel
Chairman of the Board & MD

Abneesh, that -- we are done, but our -- the marketing will be done this year. And for the near, [indiscernible] will talk separately. But we've maintained the marketing spend within the range, which we have been maintaining almost for Dish TV wealth INR 100 crore for so many years. Sometimes it's earned less. And number 2, we are getting a lot of free airtime from the broadcaster, and that availability is increasing. So that will keep our marketing cost low. Let's remember, this is a festival quarter.

A
Anil Kumar Dua
Chief Executive Officer

So this festival quarter is the only quarter where we really spend. And that's where you see. But otherwise, as Jawahar just said, the spend for the year pretty much in control.

J
Jawahar Lal Goel
Chairman of the Board & MD

Yes. And we will be depending on [indiscernible].

A
Abneesh Roy
Senior Vice President

But no plans to merge the 2 brands?

J
Jawahar Lal Goel
Chairman of the Board & MD

We'll continue both the brands. As we have said that d2h brand eventually become a thought-lending brand, our feedback platform. And both the brands will be sold in the market throughout the country. But the platform-wise, we are focusing south as d2h to satellite service in south market.

A
Abneesh Roy
Senior Vice President

And sir, last question. You had said you want to be debt-free in the next 2 years. So how easy is this, given tariff change and overall liquidity tightening? Of course, interest rate cut, we'll have more clarity in the near term. But could you give us free cash flow, how you're seeing in the light of Jio, in the light of Tariff Order? What is the conviction level on this?

R
Rajeev Kumar Dalmia
Chief Financial Officer

No, like, this quarter, the free cash flow was INR 225 crore, which was utilized for the rent payment and repayment of bank loans. If we continue to generate around INR 250 crore to INR 300 crore per quarter, then we are confident that in the next 2 years, we will be more or less debt-free.

A
Abneesh Roy
Senior Vice President

And what's the current gross and net debt, sir?

R
Rajeev Kumar Dalmia
Chief Financial Officer

Gross was INR 2,450 crore and net was INR 2,050 crore.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our next question is from the line of [ Piyush Chadha ] from [indiscernible].

U
Unknown Analyst

Just wanted to learn a little more about this investment that you're making in Dish Infrastructure (sic) [ Infra ], your wholly owned subsidiary of around INR 3,000 crores. What is the money being used for, and how will you finance this investment?

A
Anil Kumar Dua
Chief Executive Officer

Actually, Dish Infra, when it was formed, there is a new lining was different then. In actuality, there is a new lining [indiscernible]. We had to incur a lot of expenses because of the extension planned. We'll do after the d2h. We financed around INR 3,550 crore to Dish Infra for mitigating the expenses of -- day-to-day expenses. Now by including the [indiscernible] this is a wholly owned subsidiary.

U
Unknown Analyst

I see. So the money has already been invested in it then. Right now, it's been recognized as loans, and those loans will be converted to equity.

R
Rajeev Kumar Dalmia
Chief Financial Officer

Absolutely. And it was part of our annual report also. There was a note on this.

U
Unknown Analyst

Okay. Second question on this SMRT boxes that you are trying to launch with the SMRT Stick, what's been the kind of take-up and acceptancy you're seeing on the services?

J
Jawahar Lal Goel
Chairman of the Board & MD

Yes, Piyush. So these are -- actually SMRT Stick are meant for the existing HD boxes, which are already there in the market. There is no new box that we're especially launching for this. The boxes that have been there, they can pair up with the SMRT Stick and talk to the Internet in their house and show you a lot of online content, the sites you're continuing to see the linear services on your television. We have just started this, and we are seeing good response. We'll be able to share numbers with you probably in the next couple of quarters, but initial response has been pretty encouraging.

Operator

The next question is from the line of Mayur Gathani from Ohm Portfolio.

M
Mayur Gathani
Research Analyst

Sir, considering that the deadline was from -- implemented from 1st Feb, you will have some impact in Jan and hence quarter 4 additions will also be poor? Or because of the cricketing season, you might see a positive number?

J
Jawahar Lal Goel
Chairman of the Board & MD

No. I think 2 months is a good enough time. We'll already know as the quarter progresses. But yes, the uncertainty has continued from December into January. But as we said in our release, we're expecting this trend to become very -- to reverse and become very favorable. And certainly we feel that in the long term or maybe in the long term, there is going to be no adverse impact of the short period of changeover. And so we are pan-India service and some of the MSO have not done preparation for coming on to the new Tariff Order. So obviously, the content provider will set their content. So there will be opportunity for DTH companies to grab more subscribers. You're mostly aware that Arasu Cable in Chennai in Tamil Nadu. So they had also -- they were running in analog. Then the broadcaster were talked about. Then the BARC rating on analog were shut down way back somewhere in November. And that's why the clear pressure on the broadcaster were not there. They started asking good money. Now Arasu has also started implementing the Tariff Order. So this is one. But there are many parts of the country, they were running analog hardware. And their -- the broadcasters were not -- representative was not reaching out there. If they had 50,000 subscribers, they were paying for 2,000. So their content cost was pretty low. I know some facts that down in South, Kerala, the total content cost to the cable operator was INR 31, including Sun TV, Zee, Star, Sony, Colors and English content as well as the sports content. Whereas in our case, we are paying these amounts. So that disparity will go away. So we should be in good position to expand our margins. Even [indiscernible] was low, we will expand our margin and maintain, and in that way, this margin will grow.

M
Mayur Gathani
Research Analyst

Great. And so what was ARPU for this quarter?

R
Rajeev Kumar Dalmia
Chief Financial Officer

ARPU was around INR 200.

M
Mayur Gathani
Research Analyst

Somehow you missed mentioning this in the note, or you will not be mentioning going forward?

R
Rajeev Kumar Dalmia
Chief Financial Officer

Going forward, I think it is difficult to calculate because we are in the different model. We get paid for the pie and the margin from the broadcaster in order to keep our -- we are not happy with this 20% margin that's being given by the broadcaster. So we are negotiating with them, talking to them. These things will happen -- start happening after the broadcaster gets first or second weekly report of their channel viewership. Thereafter the new subscription will start happening.

M
Mayur Gathani
Research Analyst

Okay. And I missed the number. What did you say was the cash flow for quarter 3 and for the 9 months?

R
Rajeev Kumar Dalmia
Chief Financial Officer

Cash flow -- free cash flow of INR 225 crores.

M
Mayur Gathani
Research Analyst

That is for? For which period?

R
Rajeev Kumar Dalmia
Chief Financial Officer

December.

M
Mayur Gathani
Research Analyst

Quarter 3?

R
Rajeev Kumar Dalmia
Chief Financial Officer

Yes.

M
Mayur Gathani
Research Analyst

Okay. And for 9 months?

R
Rajeev Kumar Dalmia
Chief Financial Officer

9 months was around INR 700 crores -- INR 750 crores.

M
Mayur Gathani
Research Analyst

Okay. And for the Dish Infra Service, is there anything more inputs that you have to provide in terms of -- you said [ INR 3,000 crore ].

R
Rajeev Kumar Dalmia
Chief Financial Officer

[indiscernible] this equity, it will be able to sustain audit.

M
Mayur Gathani
Research Analyst

Okay. So you've already included. Any more funds to be increased is my question.

R
Rajeev Kumar Dalmia
Chief Financial Officer

No, no, not any more fund in the...

M
Mayur Gathani
Research Analyst

Okay. Whatever is to be done is done? Or it'll just be converting to equity?

R
Rajeev Kumar Dalmia
Chief Financial Officer

Yes, yes.

M
Mayur Gathani
Research Analyst

Okay. And the churn percentage, sir?

R
Rajeev Kumar Dalmia
Chief Financial Officer

Churn was 1% per month.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] The next question is from the line of Himanshu Shah from HDFC Securities.

H
Himanshu Shah
Equity Analyst

Can you help with the CapEx during the quarter and 9 months?

R
Rajeev Kumar Dalmia
Chief Financial Officer

The CapEx was INR 250 crore in the quarter. CapEx was INR 250 crore for the quarter.

H
Himanshu Shah
Equity Analyst

Okay. And 9 months?

R
Rajeev Kumar Dalmia
Chief Financial Officer

9 month was -- you have to be aware that other INR 425 crore. Total INR 685 crores.

H
Himanshu Shah
Equity Analyst

Okay, INR 685 crore?

R
Rajeev Kumar Dalmia
Chief Financial Officer

Yes.

H
Himanshu Shah
Equity Analyst

Sure. Sir, secondly, there has been a substantial decline in other operating income and other operating expense versus 2Q FY '19. Can you just help on that front?

R
Rajeev Kumar Dalmia
Chief Financial Officer

Yes. That was because of the import of set top box on a High Sea Sale basis. It was ultimately used in d2h. So in this quarter, there was no such arrangement. So all the boxes were imported on a -- on the basis this has to be imported as well. So that is why there was no income of around INR 40 crores in the quarter, and there was no expense of around INR 39.5 crore in the quarter. So the revenue downfall, which you see of around INR 75 crores, INR 80 crores, actual downfall or reduction is only INR 30 crores, INR 35 crores. Balance was into this entry of High Sea Sale of set top boxes.

H
Himanshu Shah
Equity Analyst

Sir, sorry, can you just help -- I'm not -- what is this exactly, High Sea sales?

R
Rajeev Kumar Dalmia
Chief Financial Officer

Yes. The effective date of the merger was 1st of October. The [indiscernible] was opened in the month of August or October, but the goods arriving after approval. So we have to change the name of the importer. So that could be done only by the way of High Sea Sale. So the accounting part of that is that we have to book it as income or purchase and then sales. So that is why there was a [indiscernible] item of INR 40 crores in the second quarter and also around INR 20 crores, INR 25 crores in the first quarter. But this quarter, there was no such income or expense because all the [indiscernible] was opened before August or September is no more in [indiscernible].

H
Himanshu Shah
Equity Analyst

Sure, sir. So just one last question. Can you help with the active and paying subs on a monthly basis, including the subscribers that would be on long-term recharges maybe quarterly or 6 monthly? So what would be a percent active and monthly paying subs on a regular basis?

J
Jawahar Lal Goel
Chairman of the Board & MD

We continue to maintain the 23.6 million subscribers are paying on a regular basis. And some of them paid [indiscernible] and around 17%, 18% subscribers are long-term subscribers, mainly from 2 months to 12 months.

H
Himanshu Shah
Equity Analyst

Okay. 17% to 18%, and that's all on a monthly basis?

J
Jawahar Lal Goel
Chairman of the Board & MD

Yes. Of the total pool of 23.6 million subscribers, around 18% subscribers are on a long-term basis. And this [indiscernible]

Operator

[Operator Instructions] And the next question is from the line of Rohit Dokania from IDFC Securities.

R
Rohit Dokania
Senior Vice President of Research

Just 2 questions from my side. I'm sorry, I joined the call a bit late. Can you sort of talk about the sort of guidance, especially in light of the 9-month performance that we have done across subscriber addition and revenue and EBITDA as well? That will be very helpful.

A
Anil Kumar Dua
Chief Executive Officer

Yes. So our EBITDA guidance stays on track, Rohit. We have said 35% for this year. So this quarter, you see this 34.1%. We're pretty much confident of delivering 35% plus. On the revenue guidance, with the new Tariff Order implementation, uncertainties, and as we explained a while back, we have to wait -- we have to watch how things go. But we pretty much remain confident about this long-term positive impact on our financials.

R
Rohit Dokania
Senior Vice President of Research

Okay. And anything on the subscriber addition guidance, or that's also difficult to sort of...

A
Anil Kumar Dua
Chief Executive Officer

So it will continue to increase. But the exact number, given the Tariff Order -- as you know, we are in the middle of Tariff Order implementation. That number is difficult to share, but we will continue to add subscribers.

R
Rohit Dokania
Senior Vice President of Research

Sure. And I think in the opening remarks, you probably made -- gave some guidance on the EBITDA, if I'm not wrong. Can you repeat that because I missed that?

J
Jawahar Lal Goel
Chairman of the Board & MD

So about the percentage of EBITDA, 35%.

R
Rajeev Kumar Dalmia
Chief Financial Officer

[indiscernible] the fact that the ARPU or the total revenue will be more in the new regime. But the profitability will continue to be maintained on a long-term basis.

R
Rohit Dokania
Senior Vice President of Research

Okay, okay. Understood, sir. And the second question was if you can sort of talk about -- so at the beginning -- during the transaction, we had spoken about the synergy that we expect from the transaction. Where are we on that synergy trajectory, if you can talk about across sort of above [indiscernible], that will be very helpful.

J
Jawahar Lal Goel
Chairman of the Board & MD

On the content side, we had been able to change the content cost [indiscernible] and the level of synergy apart from the [indiscernible], which we are investing. Regarding the Tariff Order, we could not [indiscernible] the new payout to the broadcaster. This will start happening around this quarter, and we have a [indiscernible]. The model is changed, and we believe that our overall content cost will come down by at least 20%.

R
Rohit Dokania
Senior Vice President of Research

Okay. This is post the Tariff Order you're talking about?

J
Jawahar Lal Goel
Chairman of the Board & MD

Yes.

R
Rohit Dokania
Senior Vice President of Research

Okay. And are we check on the sort of financial expenses as well in terms of synergies? Is this quarter a right reflection? Or are there any sort of ForEx related...

J
Jawahar Lal Goel
Chairman of the Board & MD

We're working on some item or longer program. So we are working on this like subscriber management system, conditional access, the back-end operations, satellite costs. So some has been achieved and some are yet to be achieved.

R
Rohit Dokania
Senior Vice President of Research

Okay. Understood, sir. On the financial expense, the interest expense?

J
Jawahar Lal Goel
Chairman of the Board & MD

And we have substantially decreased our CapEx. You must have seen this in the P&L item. But the CapEx, we have been able to drive this down and will continue to do that.

Operator

The next question is from the line of [ Basant Patil ] from Mentor Capital.

U
Unknown Analyst

Sir, just wanted to understand on the interest, what is the cost of debt actually?

R
Rajeev Kumar Dalmia
Chief Financial Officer

[indiscernible] around 8.5%. But we have to provide for the upgrade part of the license fee. That fee probably will be slightly higher, but the actual interest [indiscernible] 8.5%.

U
Unknown Analyst

Sir, even considering the -- that license fee cost, so the cost -- what would be the actual cost? Actually, sir, if you see the gross debt, I think it is INR 2,450 crore. Is that correct, sir?

R
Rajeev Kumar Dalmia
Chief Financial Officer

Yes.

U
Unknown Analyst

Sir, if you look at the interest outflow for the quarter, so the cost seems to be pretty high. So is that -- the differential cost is because of the license fee cost?

R
Rajeev Kumar Dalmia
Chief Financial Officer

Yes. It is around INR 130 crore for license fee, and the balance is for the actual business operation.

U
Unknown Analyst

Okay, okay, okay. Sir, regarding the CapEx, this year, we are setting the CapEx of INR 900 crores, is that correct, INR 900 crores to INR 950 crores for the year-end?

R
Rajeev Kumar Dalmia
Chief Financial Officer

It can be even less because of the differing of set top box prices recently. So we have INR 325 crores in the 9-month. It could be ending with INR 850 crores to INR 875 crores.

U
Unknown Analyst

Okay. And any -- can you highlight on the -- any capital guidance for next year, anything on that?

R
Rajeev Kumar Dalmia
Chief Financial Officer

Next year will be even lower because the recently concluded price of the set top box is very low. So I don't want to make a comment, but it can be even hitting INR 700 crore.

U
Unknown Analyst

Okay, okay. Around that range?

R
Rajeev Kumar Dalmia
Chief Financial Officer

Yes.

J
Jawahar Lal Goel
Chairman of the Board & MD

We're still making our [indiscernible] on that.

R
Rajeev Kumar Dalmia
Chief Financial Officer

Yes.

Operator

The next question is from the line of Rajiv Sharma from SBICAP Securities.

R
Rajiv Sharma
Co

Just a couple of questions from my side. Firstly, you mentioned about reduction in content cost by 20%. But I was just trying to understand that your content cost should not be there with the new Tariff Order. I understand some will -- you may be passing discounts to some of your subscriber. Is that what we're talking about? Just help me understand this line, please. Secondly, with the Jio trying to consolidate the cable space, could we see a sharper reduction in CapEx going forward? And how much of your CapEx is non-set top box?

R
Rajeev Kumar Dalmia
Chief Financial Officer

Non-set top box CapEx was around INR 75 crore. And that was -- there will be the alignment of d2h [indiscernible]. And some of the expenses will -- on Watcho, which is an OTT platform. But however, more than 95% of the CapEx is on set top box and [indiscernible].

R
Rajiv Sharma
Co

Okay. And your content cost line, please?

R
Rajeev Kumar Dalmia
Chief Financial Officer

Content cost [indiscernible].

J
Jawahar Lal Goel
Chairman of the Board & MD

Yes. You see, we have to collect the content cost and pay to the consumer -- to the broadcaster. Currently, our pay channel cost is 35% to 38%. In case of d2h, which is around -- roughly around 40%. For the benefit, which are in comparison, I was talking of it, we're paying INR 2,300 crore. So what we are expecting that the content cost in next basis will be around INR 1,800. This [indiscernible].

R
Rajiv Sharma
Co

Okay. So that [indiscernible]. And sir, next quarter onwards, assuming maybe in this 2Q FY '20, we will see low content cost line coming in?

J
Jawahar Lal Goel
Chairman of the Board & MD

It is going to be pass-through item. So we have to consult our auditor and we'll see how do we do it.

R
Rajiv Sharma
Co

Right. And how do you see this whole Jio consolidating the cable TV business?

J
Jawahar Lal Goel
Chairman of the Board & MD

This I -- this we have discussed in length in every quarter. And most 4 quarter, we are discussing. So far, we have not seen any impact. The -- and those companies are also preparing and they are starting to do the new Tariff Order. So it is actually hard. And at this moment, they can't work, starting to be [indiscernible] Jio and we made them business partner, but will get delayed by another 3 to 4 -- 3 to 6 months.

R
Rajiv Sharma
Co

You mean the new Tariff Order implementation?

J
Jawahar Lal Goel
Chairman of the Board & MD

Yes, yes. Everybody is busy these days. He's not saying that new Tariff Order will get delayed. He is saying that anyone else with other plans is right now -- everybody is busy with the new Tariff Order implementation. So new Tariff Order is, of course, happening in the territory as we speak.

Operator

Next question is from the line of Sunny Gosar from MK Ventures.

S
Sunny Gosar

What I want to understand is, what is the license fee liability outstanding as of December 2018?

R
Rajeev Kumar Dalmia
Chief Financial Officer

It is around INR 2,850 crores, out of which interest is INR 850 crore and principal is INR 2,000 crore.

S
Sunny Gosar

And what is the status in terms of payment of this liability? Where is it held up currently?

R
Rajeev Kumar Dalmia
Chief Financial Officer

It is held up in Supreme Court. So we are all waiting for the judgment. Then we will decide how to make a payment plan and how to [indiscernible]. So we are making payment of around 5.5%, 6% per annum, and [indiscernible].

S
Sunny Gosar

Okay. And suppose if the decision comes against you, you will have to upfront pay the entire INR 2,850 crores?

R
Rajeev Kumar Dalmia
Chief Financial Officer

Not likely, because we've [indiscernible] the last 7 years, so there will not be any upfront payment. And [indiscernible] all the 4, 5 players are fighting for this. So the time will be given. And depends on how the judgment is providing to the overall industry.

S
Sunny Gosar

But it will have a cash flow impact, there should not be any P&L impact for us?

J
Jawahar Lal Goel
Chairman of the Board & MD

No. There is no P&L impact. It will have liquidity impact.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] As there are no further questions from the participants, I would now like to hand the conference over to Tarun Nanda for closing comments. Sir, before we close, we have one question in the queue. We'll take the question from the line of Jay Doshi from Kotak Securities.

J
Jaykumar Doshi
Analyst

I think the question was asked before, but still not very convinced with the response. So now whatever we get, there is cable players, by and large, are not ready to implement Tariff Order in the right manner or in principle. And with elections ahead, there is a possibility that we may not see them implementing for another 3 to 6 months. So during this period, the offering of DTH players, including yours, will probably not be as competitive, either on the content side or on the pricing side, at least at the lower end of the packs. So what was -- and again, from your commentary, I also understand that you're not very happy with the 20% commission that you're getting from broadcasters as of today, which means that it will not result in any big revenue upside as well in the near term. Given these 2 aspects, why did you choose to implement it ahead of everyone else and the take the risk of possibly some churn from DTH to cable if cable continues to stick to the old rates and the old packs? And is there any sort of guarantee or assurance you have received from broadcasters that the switch-off or blackout will happen? Or even that looks like a low probability scenario?

J
Jawahar Lal Goel
Chairman of the Board & MD

I -- as far as I understand, every MSO is moving in implementing the Tariff Order, new Tariff Order. Include -- you can ask them, Hathway and Siti Cable, even Calcutta, any of the MSO, they are working on it. There may be some pocket will be left in the -- that 3 or 4 markets. They were running analog. But the broadcaster will not -- they cannot continue the same pricing model or a fixed fee. So under the new rule, they have to be clear of the subscriber number. And [indiscernible] as well as all the cable company has to find the number of subscriber for each channel on the website of TRAI. And not once in a month, it is all time in the 1 month. So you have to give your data. And based on that, the broadcasters will chart and price their -- declare -- advise the MSO. So we cannot -- there is -- and it is being implemented. It's not that the [indiscernible] is implemented. I think the whole industry is implementing. So there is no question of delay -- I mean, delays. Yes, there are 2 [indiscernible] are doing [indiscernible] market, which probably TRAI is taking action.

J
Jaykumar Doshi
Analyst

Right. And finally, so what is your understanding of -- is there some sort of -- have the MSOs reconciled with the fact that the content cost will go up significantly versus [indiscernible] you still think that -- will there be transparency as expected? Will you be -- would you expect that to play out?

A
Anil Kumar Dua
Chief Executive Officer

I think we brought these -- the MSOs are under pressure. They are -- their content cost was going up by 30% to 40% every year after tax implementation. Their carriage fee was coming down. And it was very difficult for the MSO to continue the operation. So that's why these managements of all the MSOs, their associations, they are working day and night to get this implemented so that the growth -- there is a terminology used by broadcaster, they come to the distributor and they say give me a growth of 50% or 80% or 100%. And then the [indiscernible] pressure, they do it. BigTV could manage their content cost as flat in whole of this year because we have created [ a viva ], which is called Mera Apna Pack. The 4 million subscriber, which were on a-la-carte, we have created a firewall so that the broadcaster could not ask their pay increase.

J
Jaykumar Doshi
Analyst

Understood. And sorry, one more question, final one. What are you hearing on Free Dish? Any updates that you can give on what the industry intends to do?

A
Anil Kumar Dua
Chief Executive Officer

Free Dish, I think the most popular channel, Zee, Star, Sony and Colors and [indiscernible] as well as movie channel, they have decided that the [indiscernible] will come and from the 1st of March, they are going to be -- put it on [indiscernible] from the platform. And they decided not to go on that platform for strictly the Pal and Bharat and whatnot. So all the channels will not be there on [indiscernible]. At that point, you must have seen that the a-la-carte, they are price channels. They are no more a free channel.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] As there are no questions from the participants, I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Tarun Nanda for closing comments.

T
Tarun Nanda
Head of Investor Relations

Thank you once again, ladies and gentlemen. We'll soon be talking on the 4Q numbers. The transcript of this call will be on our website, www.dishtv.in. We look forward to speak to you again. Any time if you have any queries, please feel free to get in touch. Thank you, and have a great day.

Operator

Thank you very much, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of Dish TV Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.

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