Bharti Airtel together with Tata Group have terminated their discussions about uniting their direct-to-home (DTH) businesses. Airtel filed a Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) regulatory notice on Saturday which confirmed the two companies failed to achieve a suitable agreement thus they mutually ended the discussions.
Bharti Airtel made public its plans to merge Bharti Telemedia DTH operations with Tata Group’s Tata Play in February 2025. The proposed merger aimed to transform the DTH market through operational consolidation between the two companies for enhanced market dominance. The companies spent multiple months in discussions but failed to agree on essential merger terms.
Airtel stated in its notice that the February 26, 2025 announcement remained valid because the parties failed to find a suitable solution so they decided together to end the discussions. The filing omitted specific details regarding the points of disagreement as well as financial consequences.
The proposed merger would have established the second major DTH industry consolidation in India following the 2016 Dish TV-Videocon d2h merger. Bharti Telemedia which operates as a Bharti Airtel subsidiary provides cable and satellite TV services to customers alongside Tata Play which maintains a strong position as a major DTH service provider in India.
The failed merger discussions demonstrate the difficulties of uniting big legacy services because of market changes and growing OTT platform competition. The DTH operations of Bharti Airtel and Tata Group remain independent from each other.
