Are Jio/Airtel creating the next telecom-style duopoly with IPTV + OTT?

I've been thinking about how television and telecom have evolved in India, and I wonder if we're slowly heading toward the same situation we saw with mobile prepaid.

Remember how mobile recharge used to be?

There were a lot of operators. Competition was everywhere. Prices were low, and companies kept offering more and more benefits to attract customers.

Then the market consolidated.

Today, Jio and Airtel dominate the mobile market. Vodafone Idea is still there and BSNL exists, but the competitive situation is nothing like it was years ago. By March 2026, Jio and Airtel together had roughly 77% of India's wireless subscribers, according to TRAI.

And once the market became concentrated, prices went up.

Now look at television.

We started with antennas on the roof — DD National, DD Metro, DD News, etc.

Then cable TV became the standard.

Then DTH came along and removed the dependence on the local cable operator. You put a dish on your roof, connected the STB, and got your channels directly.

Now we're entering the next phase:

Fiber + IPTV + OTT.

And honestly, I think this is technically a much better experience.

One fiber connection can give you:

• Internet
• Live TV
• Catch-up TV
• On-demand movies
• OTT apps
• YouTube
• Sports
• Smart TV functionality
• Everything through one connection

You don't need a dish, LNB, satellite signal or coaxial cable coming from somewhere.

So I think DTH will gradually decline as fiber/IPTV becomes more widespread.

But I don't think DTH should die

This is an important point.

I'm not saying DTH should disappear completely.

DTH still has a very important advantage: it is independent of your internet connection.

If your fiber goes down, IPTV goes down. If there is a broadband outage, you're stuck. With DTH, the satellite signal keeps coming directly to your dish.

DTH is also extremely useful in places where fiber isn't available or isn't reliable.

So I think consumers should have both options.

Let IPTV compete with DTH on price, quality and features.

Don't eliminate DTH and make everyone dependent on fiber.

Because if DTH disappears and everyone becomes dependent on broadband for both internet and television, the broadband companies gain much more control over the entire TV ecosystem.

Competition is good.

I would rather have:

DTH + IPTV + OTT competing with each other

than:

Everyone moves to fiber/IPTV → two companies dominate → prices eventually increase.

But here's where my concern begins

Look at what Jio and Airtel are doing today.

They are bundling broadband with OTT.

For example, Jio can give you something like:

₹599 → broadband + 800+ live TV channels + multiple OTT subscriptions.

And Airtel is doing something similar with its Xstream ecosystem.

At first glance, this is fantastic for consumers.

You pay one bill and get everything.

But think about the business strategy.

Why would an OTT company give its expensive subscription away as part of a cheap broadband plan?

Because Jio/Airtel bring them a huge number of customers.

It's customer acquisition.

Someone who would never have paid for SonyLIV might start watching SonyLIV because it is included with their Jio connection.

Someone who never subscribed to ZEE5 starts using ZEE5.

Someone starts watching JioHotstar, Discovery+, SunNXT, etc.

The customer becomes dependent on these services.

And the telecom company gets a very strong retention tool:

"Why would you leave Jio? Your internet, TV and OTT subscriptions are all bundled together."

The OTT company also wins because it gets millions of potential users at a much lower customer-acquisition cost.

So everyone wins initially.

But what happens when the OTT companies become strong enough?

This is where I wonder if we're going to see the same thing that happened in mobile telecom.

Suppose SonyLIV becomes something that a huge number of Indian households consider essential.

Then eventually Sony can say:

"Why should we give our service cheaply through Jio/Airtel?"

Why not sell directly to consumers for ₹399/month?

The same could happen with ZEE5, JioHotstar, Discovery+ and other major services.

Maybe the partnership doesn't end completely.

Maybe the OTT company simply starts putting its premium features behind the direct subscription.

For example:

Basic access through Jio/Airtel

but:

• 4K
• more simultaneous screens
• premium sports
• early releases
• downloads
• better picture quality
• exclusive content

become available only with the direct subscription.

So the consumer slowly moves from:

"Everything is included in my broadband plan."

to:

"Broadband is ₹699, OTT is ₹299, sports is another ₹199, 4K is another ₹100..."

And suddenly the cheap bundle doesn't look so cheap anymore.

Then comes the bigger problem

Imagine DTH has declined significantly.

People have stopped maintaining dishes.

Cable is mostly gone.

Everyone watches TV through fiber.

At that point, broadband isn't just an optional service anymore.

It becomes the infrastructure through which your entire home entertainment experience works.

And if only a few companies dominate broadband, they have much more pricing power.

That's what worries me.

We could end up with something like:

Mobile:

Jio + Airtel dominate → prices increase.

Home internet/TV:

Jio + Airtel dominate → prices increase.

And then the OTT companies are also large enough to charge consumers directly.

So the consumer gets squeezed from both sides.

And I can imagine another thing happening

Today companies advertise:

"₹599 — broadband + TV + OTT."

Tomorrow it could become:

Basic broadband — ₹699

Live TV — +₹100

Premium OTT — +₹200

4K — +₹100

Sports — +₹150

More screens — +₹100

And eventually the "bundle" becomes just a marketing strategy rather than genuinely cheap entertainment.

I'm not saying this WILL definitely happen.

I'm saying the incentives are there for it to happen.

The irony is that technology improves while competition may decrease

DTH was a huge improvement over cable.

IPTV/fiber is a huge improvement over DTH.

But better technology doesn't automatically mean a better competitive market.

We could end up with a technically fantastic system where everything works beautifully through fiber — but only a couple of companies control the connection.

And once you depend on that connection for your TV, OTT, home internet and everything else, switching becomes harder.

That's exactly what happened with mobile to some extent.

And that's why I don't want DTH to disappear completely.

DTH should remain as an alternative.

Not because DTH is necessarily better technology.

But because having another delivery platform means consumers still have a choice.

If Jio raises broadband prices, you should be able to say:

"Fine. I'll use Airtel."

Or:

"I'll use another fiber provider."

Or even:

"I'll keep DTH for television and use a different ISP for internet."

That's healthy competition.

What do you guys think?

Am I overthinking this?

Is the current "broadband + live TV + 10–20 OTT subscriptions" model simply a temporary customer-acquisition strategy?

Or do you think Jio/Airtel and the OTT companies will continue bundling forever because both sides benefit?

Personally, I think IPTV/fiber is absolutely the future of television.

I'm just worried that the future could also bring another telecom-style concentration of power, where we initially get amazing bundles at very low prices to acquire customers, and once consumers become dependent on the ecosystem, the prices and restrictions gradually go up.

IPTV may be the future — but I don't think DTH should die. Competition should survive along with the technology.