Cable TV Crisis: India’s cable television industry has been going through a severe crisis in the last seven years, a new study has said. It is estimated that around 5.77 lakh people lost their jobs between 2018 and 2025 due to a sharp decline in paid TV subscriptions. This information is contained in the report ‘State of Cable TV Distribution in India’ prepared by the All India Digital Cable Federation and Ernst & Young India. The number of TV subscribers, which was 151 million in 2018, has decreased to 111 million in 2024. The report also predicts that it will further decrease to 71-81 million by 2030.

Job losses and revenue losses:

The report cites rising channel prices, fierce competition from OTT platforms, and the growing popularity of free services like Free Dish as the main reasons for this decline. Operators say that the main challenge facing them is the inability to charge subscribers according to channel prices. People feel that the quality of television content has decreased compared to OTT content, and the decline in television connections in homes has added to this crisis.

The combined revenue of the four direct-to-home companies and the ten major cable TV providers has fallen by 16% since 2018. Profits have also fallen by 29%. Their revenue, which was Rs 25,700 crore in FY19, has come down to Rs 21,500 crore in FY24. The study was conducted by collecting data from 28,181 local cable operators across 34 states and union territories across the country. The operators surveyed reported a 31% job loss. This equates to a loss of 37,835 jobs. When scaled to the national level, this equates to a loss of 1.14 lakh to 1.95 lakh jobs. Additionally, the closure of around 900 multi-system operators and 72,000 local cable operators since 2018 has led to total job losses of 5.77 lakh.

Industry hopeful despite Cable TV crisis:

85-90 million Indian households still pay for television subscriptions. Experts say there is an opportunity to reach around 100 million households without cable through affordable subscription plans, low-cost televisions and set-top boxes.

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