Streaming 💸
Year of big IPOs, GOI's solar dream, and A lending bet
🗓 Morning, folks!
Bit of a gloom overtaking markets right now. The S&P 500 is down 5% from all time highs, mostly giving up all gains of this year.
Back in India, Sensex and Nifty continue to be under pressure.
💡 Spotlight: Credit card transactions surged 10.8% YoY, hitting ₹1.84 lakh crore in January 2025.
You could say consumer is spending, or you could say the economy is so bad that people are relying on credit.
Pretty light news day, let’s run through a few things real quick.
1 Big Thing: Billion dollar TV shakeup 💸
Direct-to-home TV giants, Tata Play and Airtel Digital TV, are merging in a ₹7,000 crore deal.
The deal will give Airtel Digital TV access to Tata Play’s 19 million TV subscribers and 5 lakh broadband customers, making it the biggest DTH shake-up since the 2016 Videocon d2h-Dish TV merger.
Backdrop of the merger is simple — live-streaming is booming, and scale is the only way to survive in the TV game, gaining some leverage with advertisers and consumers.
The deets: combined, the businesses will have 35 million paid subscribers and over ₹7,000 crore in revenue. Post merger, Airtel is eyeing an integrated package of telecom, broadband, and DTH services to lure customers into a bundled ecosystem.
Big picture: the traditional TV industry is shrinking, as young viewers permanently go digital. PayTV subscribers in India have dropped from 120 million households to under 84 million.
The focus for telecom operators is shifting towards OTT platforms. Companies are streaming services with internet and mobile plans for a better user experience.
2. Solar gets a $1 billion subsidy ☀️
India will launch a $1 billion subsidy to boost solar panel manufacturing domestically, hoping to cut reliance on markets like China.
Worth noting, India has an aggressive target of setting up 500GW of renewable power capacity by 2030, and solar has a central role to play.
The deets: this round of subsidy particularly targets production of polysilicon, the key raw material used in solar panels.
China dominates the production of these, followed by nations like Germany, and now increasingly the United States. Energy self-sufficiency compels India to act fast.
FYI, the the government had already committed ₹24,000 crore under the PLI scheme for solar manufacturing.
3. Tata prepares for a blockbuster IPO 🔥
Tata Capital is gearing up for its IPO, looking to raise a whopping ₹15,000 crores.
The deets: the IPO will include a fresh issue of 23 crore shares along with an Offer for Sale (OFS) from the promoter group. In addition, Tata Capital has finalized a ₹1,500 crore rights issue.
A rights issue allows existing shareholders the chance to purchase more shares directly from the company at a price lower than the market value
Tata Capital is the financial nerve center of the Tata empire. The company operates three lending arms alongside investment and advisory units, acting as the capital backbone for the entire Tata ecosystem.
Zoom out: Tata Group has been aggressively expanding its lending footprint. Over the last five years, it has pumped ₹6,097 crore into Tata Capital, with ₹2,003 crore infused in 2024 alone.
With this IPO, Tata Capital is positioning itself to scale even further, reinforcing the group’s growing ambitions in the financial sector.
4. Flipkart makes a lending bet 🤝
Flipkart-backed Super Money is acquiring BharatX to double down on credit and expand its lending game.
The deets: BharatX specializes in credit solutions, helping businesses offer financing options like Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) and UPI-based credit to customers.
Super Money makes e-commerce transactions more affordable, and with BharatX’s expertise, it plans to roll out new financing options that make shopping easier on the wallet.
The goal: for Flipkart, this is a strategic push into embedded finance. As competition heats up, offering seamless credit at checkout is becoming a major battleground.
What else are we snackin’ 🍿
📉 Bad time: Smartwatch shipments to India crashed 30% in 2024, with users citing poor experience and lack of innovation.
💰 Investment boost: US pharma giant Amgen is launching a tech & innovation hub in Hyderabad with a $200M investment by 2025.
⚡Renewable push: ONGC is investing ₹1,200 crore into its subsidiary ONGC Green to acquire a 100% stake in PTC Energy.
🚗 Lost momentum: Tesla’s sales dropped 45% in January across Europe, while rival carmakers saw a surge in EV demand.
That’s it for today! Markets are off today for Shivratri which means we’ll also catch a quick snooze.
We'll be back like clockwork on Friday.
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