DISHTV OPPOSES PAY CHANNELS OFFERED FREE ON OTT & FREEDISH

[PERWEZ2020]

Dish TV, India's largest DTH platform has written to the Indian Broadcasters Foundation, complaining against broadcasters offering free live streaming of Pay channels on OTT platforms.
"Broadcasters, on one hand, keep on charging huge subscription fee from us and, on the other hand, provide the same content/channel to the OTT platforms at highly subsidized rates, thereby not only creating a non-level field, but also causing huge detriment to the subscribers of Dish TV. Availability of same content/channel on alternate distribution platform on much cheaper rate vis-avis DTH has started resulting into migration to the alternate distribution platforms," Dish TV has written to the IBF.
Written by DishTV MD Jawahar Goel, the Dish TV 11 August 2017 letter also questions the move of Pay channels offered free on FreeDish, shifting the TV market's business model to advertising driven.
Goel has termed both these practices "prejudicial & discriminatory."
The letter further urged "It will be critical for your (IBF) members to spell out the strategy to hold/ grow the pay TV market, which has been contributing to around 35-40% of the total revenue of the pay broadcasters."