Hathway and Den losing signal?

The big news maker yesterday was obviously the AGM of Reliance Industries. After disrupting the telecom sector, the giant is now on the prowl and this time, the Direct-To-Home (DTH) service providers are feeling threatened.

At the AGM, Ambani announced launch of fixed line broadband, called JioGigaFiber and Jio will also provide the service to homes and businesses across 1,100 cities. A fiber network will deliver everything from television content to movies to users at home.

A JioGigaFiber connection will come with a router and a set-top box. The Jio remote will be voice activated and support multiple Indian languages.

The commercial launch of this expected by Dec 2018.

For established players like Zee Media and Dish TV, there is no immediate threat.  As explained by Jawahar Goel, managing director of Dish TV, in an interview with Bloombergquint, for Jio, the cost of acquiring a subscriber will be the range of Rs 8,000-10,000, while it will be just around Rs 1,500 for Dish. Being the first entrant, it will continue to enjoy the advantage of enjoying a competitive edge, as their cost will be much lower.

On the other hand, the threat is likely to more real and disruptive in the near term for Hathway Cable and Den Networks. That explains why Hathway is the top loser on the BSE, hitting a new low today at Rs.18.55 and second top loser is Den, which also hit a new low today at Rs.62.20. Dish TV, on the other hand, is in the green.