Sharp decline in pay-TV subscriptions leads to 577,000 job losses: Study
Mumbai: India's cable television industry has undergone a significant contraction over the past seven years, with an estimated 577,000 cumulative job losses between 2018 and 2025, driven largely by a sharp decline in pay-TV subscribers, according to a report released on Monday.
Pay-TV subscriber base dropped from 151 million in 2018 to 111 million in 2024 and is expected to fall further to between 71-81 million by 2030, said the report, 'State of Cable TV Distribution in India', jointly prepared by the All India Digital Cable Federation (
AIDCF
) and EY India.
It attributed the decline to rising channel costs, increased competition from OTT platforms and growing popularity of free, unregulated services such as DD Free Dish.
Cumulative revenues of four DTH players and 10 major cable TV providers, or multi-system operators (MSOs), have declined by more than 16% since 2018 while their margins have reduced by 29%, the report said.
In FY19, their combined revenue stood at ₹25,700 crore, which dropped to ₹21,500 crore in FY24. Combined Ebitda fell to ₹3,100 crore in FY24 from ₹4,400 crore in FY19.
The study drew inputs from 28,181 local cable operators (LCOs) across 34 states and union territories.
The LCO workforce has been severely affected, with surveyed operators reporting a 31% drop in employment, representing a loss of 37,835 jobs. When extrapolated to the national level, this translates into job losses ranging from 114,000 to 195,000 across various operational tiers.
In addition, closure of approximately 900 MSOs and 72,000 LCOs since 2018 has contributed to the overall job loss figure of 577,000, the report said.
Despite these challenges, industry leaders remain cautiously optimistic.
JioStar vice chairman Uday Shankar,
Zee Entertainment
chief executive officer Punit Goenka, and Sony Pictures Networks India CEO Gaurav Banerjee have, in recent times, reiterated their belief in the resilience and growth potential of linear television.
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Bad news for employees of this industry as 577000 workers have lost jobs due to...
If you are part of the generation that grew up in the 1990s and 2000s, you will be familiar with the golden era of cable television, which was the only home entertainment outlet prevalent across every region of India. With the fast-paced growth of technology, that space has relinquished its space and faded slowly over the years. With the arrival of digital platforms and shifting viewer habits, the cable TV industry has continued to experience a steady decline, causing an unprecedented downturn over the last seven years. According to the State of Cable TV Distribution in India report by the All India Digital Cable Federation (AIDCF) and EY India, nearly 5.77 lakh jobs in the sector have been lost between 2018 and 2025. In 2018, an estimated 151 million households in India had Pay-TV connections. That number fell to 111 million by 2024, as defined in the report. Pay TV allows users to subscribe to many television channels (much like a cable bill) for a fixed amount of money. The report also projects that there will be 71 – 81 million Pay-TV subscribers by 2030. This shows that in comparison to 2018 the user base could be cut almost in half by 2030. A reduction of nearly 40 million subscribers can be attributed to a variety of reasons: the increase in price of TV channels, the popularity of OTT services like Netflix and Amazon Prime, and free alternatives like DD Free Dish. People are spending more time on streaming services and less time on traditional television channels. This decrease has caused large economic losses to the cable TV industry. In 2019, the combined revenue of the four main DTH (Direct-to-Home) operators and ten major Multi-System Operators was ₹25,700 crore. In 2024, the revenue was ₹21,500 crore, or about a 16% decrease. In the same five years, the profit margin (EBITDA) for these DTH and MSOs also fell substantially by 29%, from ₹4,400 crore in 2019 to ₹3,100 crore in 2024.
