Target 250k broadband subscribers by March 2017: Siti Cable

Siti Cable aims to increase its broadband subscriber base to 250,000 by March 2017, says Chief Executive Officer VD Wadhwa. The company had 132,500 subscribers at the end of the first quarter of FY17. The company also hopes to end the year with little over 200,000 subscribers in its HD package which currently has around 50,000 subscribers, he says.Siti has hiked prices across packages by average Rs 40 across July and August. Wadhwa hopes atleast Rs 15-20 will flow back to the company from this price increase.Siti Cable's debt is on a downward trend after promoters put in additional funds. Currently, debt stands at around Rs 1100 crore.Below is the transcript of VD Wadhwa’s interview to Nigel D’souza and Latha Venkatesh on CNBC-TV18. Nigel: I was just looking at some of your numbers in the past. I want to talk about the activation revenues. What are they going to look like for FY17? That is really where the big delta comes in. We have seen a big growth. Could you tell us what kind of targets we have for the end of this fiscal? A: In terms of the targets, basically, the total target was to add at least 5 million boxes in the current year. But because of Phase-III digitisation is currently on hold and because the matter is subjudice in Delhi High Court, so it has been delayed. The Phase-III which was likely to be over in December, 2015, we are in the eighth month of 2016 and still it has not been cleared. So, it all depends on that, but we are hoping that if the matter gets decided by the court in the next 1-2 months, we should still be able to deliver our original target, otherwise there will be some shortfall. Latha: At the moment, your broadband subscribers have gone up from 1,00,000 to 1,30,000 in a quarter. Your HD subscribers have also gone up substantially by almost 50,000. What are the targets over there for FY17? A: We are targeting that we should have at least 2,50,000 broadband subscribers by March 2017 and we should have at least close to 3,00,000 HD subscribers. So, HD, that 3,00,000 is looking a bit difficult right now because it is not moving the way we expected the market to grow. Though we are carrying the inventory, we have the content, we are carrying roughly about 57 HD channels in our bouquet right now. So, we should be closing about 2,00,000 plus HD subscribers and about 2,50,000 broadband subscribers by the end of the year. Nigel: You are sounding reasonably confident about those numbers. What about any price increases? I remember in the middle, there were some talks that in certain parts of the country, you had taken some prices increases, is that true? And also, could you tell us what you average revenue per user (ARPU) is looking like? Could you tell us for your HD, SD as well as your non digitised? Break it up for as well. A: We have recently revised our package. Earlier we were operating with four packages. Now we have reduced the packages and now total three package is there. Basic package and then the royal and magnum package. So, the price increase at the consumer level is in the range of weighted average, roughly Rs 40 increase in the prices and we are targeting that at least half of this should flow back to us, at least Rs 15-20 what we are targeting that should flow back to the company. So it has just happened in the month of July. In some market it has been revised in the month of July. Balance, it is getting revised in the month of August itself. So, you will see the real benefit in the second half of the year of this. Latha: Can you give me an idea of what is your debt? Is it headed up or down? A: It is headed for down only because sometime in February we raised some funding from the promoter has put in additional fund which have largely utilised to reduce our debt. Debt which has gone beyond Rs 1,300 crore, it is roughly a little under Rs 1,100 crore.