India’s pay DTH platforms witnessed further fall in total active subscriber numbers as it decreased from 58.22 million in December 2024 to 56.92 million in March 2025, according to TRAI data released yesterday.

Pointing out that the DTH data was in addition to the subscriber numbers of Doordarshan FreeDish, a free DTH service, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said during the quarter-ending (QE) March 31, 2025, there were four pay DTH service providers in the country — Dish TV, Tata Play, Airtel Digital TV and Sun Direct.

In other data sets on the Indian media & entertainment industry, TRAI said 918 private satellite TV channels have been permitted by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) for uplinking and downlinking.

TRAI yesterday released the ‘Indian Telecom Services Performance Indicator Report’ for the quarter ending March 31, which provides a broad perspective of the telecom services in India and presents key parameters and growth trends of such services apart from those relating to cable TV, DTH and radio broadcasting services for the first quarter of the calendar year 2025. The data is compiled mainly on the basis of information furnished by the service providers.

“As per the reporting done by broadcasters in pursuance of the Tariff Order dated 3rd March 2017, as amended, out of 908 permitted satellite TV channels which are available for downlinking in India, there are 333 satellite pay TV channels as on 31st March, 2025. Out of 333 pay channels, 232 are SD satellite pay TV channels and 101 are HD satellite pay TV channels,” the TRAI report observed.

Apart from the radio channels operated by Akashvani or the All India Radio, which is a public broadcaster, as per the data reported by private sector FM radio operators, there were 388 operational FM radio channels in 113 cities operated by 36 private FM operators as on December 31, 2024.

During the QE March 31, six channels operated by three private FM radio operators — (i) Digital Radio (Delhi) Broadcasting Ltd (3 channels), (ii) Digital Radio (Mumbai) Broadcasting Ltd (2 channels) and (iii) Digital Radio (Kolkata) Broadcasting Ltd (1 channel) — were merged with South Asia FM Ltd.  After the mergers there are 388 operational private FM radio channels across 113 cities that are operated by 33 private FM radio operators.

The advertisement revenue reported by FM radio operators during the period under review stood at Rs.466.63 crore as against Rs.500.11 crore in respect of 388 private FM Radio channels for the previous quarter.

Total number of Internet subscribers decreased from 970.16 million at the end of Dec-24 to 969.10 million at the end of Mar-25, registering a quarterly rate of decline of 0.11 percent. Out of 969.10 million Internet subscribers, the number of wired subscribers is 41.41 million and the number of wireless subscribers is 927.70 million, according to TRAI.

The Internet subscriber base comprises broadband (944.12 million) and narrowband (24.98 million).

The broadband Internet subscriber base decreased by 0.09 percent from 944.96 million at the end of Dec-24 to 944.12 million at the end of Mar-25. The narrowband Internet subscriber base decreased from 25.20 million at the end of Dec-24 to 24.98 million at the end of Mar-25.

Wireline subscribers decreased from 39.27 million at the end of Dec-24 to 37.04 million at the end of Mar-25 with a quarterly rate of decline of 5.67 percent. This decrease, TRAI said, is due to the accounting of 5G FWA subscribers in the wireless category. On a Y-O-Y basis, wireline subscriptions increased by 9.62 percent at the end of QE Mar-25.

Wireline tele-density decreased from 2.79 percent at the end of Dec-24 to 2.62 percent at the end of Mar-25 with a quarterly rate of decline of 5.88 percent.

Monthly Average Revenue per User (ARPU) for wireless service increased by 0.64 percent from Rs.181.80 in QE Dec-24 to Rs.182.95 in QE Mar-25. On a Y-O-Y basis, monthly ARPU for wireless service increased by 19.16 percent in this quarter.