Tata Play bets on coexistence of DTH and streaming with new a Rs 199 live TV app

Tata Play is expanding beyond its traditional direct-to-home (DTH) business with a new app that brings more than 500 live television channels to connected TVs without a set-top box or dish antenna, but the company is not preparing to move away from satellite television.

The launch comes as India’s paid DTH industry faces mounting subscriber losses. The active subscriber base of the four paid DTH operators fell 13.4% year-on-year to 48.56 million as of June 30, 2026, from 56.07 million a year earlier, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) performance indicator report for the April-June quarter. The industry also lost subscribers sequentially, with the base declining from 49.05 million in March, underscoring the pressure on traditional pay-TV distribution.