Dish TV, one of the largest Direct-to-Home (DTH) operators in the country hasn’t been in the kind of place it used to be. In simple words, the company has been losing subscribers at a higher rate in the last few years. There was a time when Dish TV used to compete head to head with Tata Sky for gaining the largest market share. But now, Dish TV’s business has slowed down quite heavily. According to a PTI report, a Dish TV official said the company needs the Rs 1,000 crore rights issue. This is because it needs to upgrade its Set-Top Box (STB) technology and attract new users to purchase the company’s services. Without doing this, the company official said that Dish TV’s subscriber base would keep shrinking.
Dish TV Rights Issue is Being Opposed by Yes Bank
Yes Bank, which is the single largest shareholder in the company and is holding 25.63% of the equity is opposing the rights issue. As per the report, Yes Bank believes that this rights issue is only to dilute its equity stake in the company. The official said that Tata Sky and Airtel have already gone much ahead of the company in upgrading their STB technology. Both Airtel and Tata Sky customers can watch over-the-top (OTT) and satellite content through their Android STBs very conveniently. Dish TV also needs the money to spend more on creating a new brand image for itself. But with Yes Bank opposing the rights issue, it is becoming a little hard for the DTH company to go ahead with the fundraising activity. For the unaware, Dish TV reported a net loss of Rs 677.75 crore for the year ending March 31, 2021. The company currently has over 16 million active customers. Dish TV needs the rights issue desperately to turn things around for itself.
