new Delhi: India’s largest direct-to-home (DTH) service provider Dish TV India Ltd, promoted by Essel Group, narrowed its second quarter net loss to Rs56.13 crore from a loss of Rs154.1 crore in the corresponding year-ago period.

Its revenue increased 49% to Rs257.5 crore in the three months to end-September from Rs173.3 crore earlier.

During the quarter, Dish TV added 410,000 subscribers, fewer than the 440,000 subscribers it added in the preceding three months, to reach a net subscriber base of 4.98 million.

Average subscriber acquisition costs for the company rose to Rs2,635 compared with Rs2,487 reported in the first quarter.

“This increase is due to the exchange rate variation since most of the hardware (such as set top boxes and satellite dishes) is imported,” said Jawahar Goel, managing director, Dish TV.

The company expects subscriber acquisition costs to remain at around Rs2,500 till the end of the fiscal year.

Its gross average revenue per user (Arpu) saw a marginal decline to Rs179 from Rs189 earlier.

“The decrease in our Arpu is because we have acquired about 450,000 customers through our ‘Happy Home’ scheme, where subscribers paid Rs840 for one year, which comes to monthly Arpu of Rs70 as compared to an average of Rs125,” Goel said in a conference call with analysts and reporters.

“These subscribers will start paying up from next month, so the Arpu will be better next quarter,” he said.

There are 15.17 million DTH subscribers in the country, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.