Dish TV-Bharti Airtel Merger Plans to Form World’s Largest DTH Network Hit Roadblock Over Price Negotiation

The proposed merger of Zee group's Dish TV with Bharti Airtel has hit a roadblock following a steep decline in the share value of Dish TV since April, reports Telecom Talk.

Dish TV is unwilling to sell the staked 57.52 per cent of its shares below Rs 45 apiece. While the buyers collective of Bharti Airtel, Warburg Pincus and Singapore Telecommunications, is offering around Rs 30-35 per share.

Going by Airtel's offering, Dish TV shall receive Rs 3,707 crore, a lot lesser than Rs 4,766 crore the latter is hoping to garner from the sale.

If the merger gets materialised, the Airtel-Dish TV combine would be the largest DTH conglomerate with around 40 million subscribers and over 60 per cent of the market share.

Airtel and Dish TV entered the merger talks in March, soon after Reliance Jio availed major portion of stakes in Hathway Cable & Datacom and DEN Networks, aiming a reach of 24 million homes in over 750 cities across the country.