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Hathway’s HD rush; launches Fox International Channels in Bengaluru
MUMBAI: It‘s getting hot on HD. One of India‘s leading MSOs Hathway Cable & Datacom is looking at taking its HD subscriber base to 200,000 in a year‘s time and has just signed a deal to roll out Fox International Channels (FIC) HD channels into its HD packages.
The service provider has currently launched the FIC channel HD bouquet only in Bangalore initially but will be extended to Hyderabad soon and then to the rest of the country by end of the year.
Hathway currently caters to a modest HD subscriber base of approximately 25,000 nationwide (out of which most number of subscribers reside in metros).
Says Hathway CEO Jagdeesh Kumar: “We have currently launched the HD zapper box only in Bengaluru because we are using the city as a test case to gauge response. But we will soon unveil the DVR box as well in the next six to eight months.”
The HD service costs Rs 4,500 and comes with a set top box (STB) with a package of 20 HD channels that excludes the recently acquired Fox International Channel (The set includes: National Geographic Channel (NGC), FOX Traveller, Nat Geo Wild, Nat Geo Adventure, Nat Geo Music and Baby TV in HD.)
“We have plans to carry 35 HD channels,” adds Kumar. “We aim to get in a bulk of the DTH subscribed audience back to cable in time to come, and we are confident of doing so as we have more bandwidth at our disposal hence giving a better picture to our subscribers. We can deliver consistent and better quality pictures and our viewers would not have to worry about interruptions in signals during torrential rains.”
For Bengaluru, Kumar is pushing a promotional campaign to sign up HD subscribers early. Says he, “We are trying to keep very competitive prices and offer a good discount for early bookings. We are confident that with our superior quality and better clarity, we would be able to deliver the best for our viewers.”
All the content available with FIC is being shot in HD and Ultra HD and the channel currently has close to 100 hours of content to showcase. The group banks on its prime property NGC, being the oldest channel in the cluster, to get in the viewers and to build a loyal fan base.
“We are delighted to partner with Hathway in offering a better viewing experience to our audience; our channels would be available in enhanced picture quality across Hathway‘s extensive network,” says NGC Network India and Fox International Channels MD Keertan Adyanthaya. “We are currently looking at activation plans and thus do not have many advertisers on board to boast of, but we are sure that once we start getting an audience, the advertisers will follow.”
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Inshorts Group chief Deepit Purkayastha joins IAB video council for Southeast Asia and India
The co-founder and chief executive of the short-form content platform has been inducted into the IAB SEA+India Video Council, giving India a stronger voice in shaping digital video frameworks
NOIDA: India has long been the world’s most chaotic, multilingual and mobile-first digital market. Now, one of its most prominent short-video executives is getting a seat at the table where the rules are written.
Deepit Purkayastha, co-founder and chief executive of Inshorts Group, has been selected as a member of the IAB SEA+India Video Council for 2026. Run by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, the council brings together senior leaders from Southeast Asia and India to shape standards, best practices and measurement frameworks for the fast-evolving video and digital advertising ecosystem.
The timing is pointed. According to the IAMAI-Kantar Internet in India Report 2025, over 588 million Indians are now consuming short-video content, with growth increasingly driven by rural and non-metro audiences. India’s active internet user base has crossed 950 million, with 57 per cent of users now coming from rural markets. Yet the frameworks that govern how video consumption is measured and monetised were largely designed for single-language, Western markets and have struggled to keep pace with the scale, diversity and complexity of India’s digital landscape.
Purkayastha is no stranger to these debates. He already serves on the AI Council at Marketing and Media Alliance India and as co-chair of the Digital Entertainment Committee at the Internet and Mobile Association of India. His induction into the IAB SEA+India Video Council extends that influence into the global video standards arena.
Inshorts Group sits squarely at the intersection of these forces. Its flagship product, Inshorts, India’s highest-rated short news app, reaches 12 million active users with 60-word news summaries. Its sister platform, Public App, reaches 80 million monthly active users across more than 700 districts and 12 languages, serving communities that most global platforms barely register.
Purkayastha said the opportunity was about building something more representative. “India today sits at the centre of the global video ecosystem, but the frameworks that define how value is created and measured have not always kept pace with the realities of our market,” he said. “Being part of the IAB SEA+India Video Council is an opportunity to contribute to a more representative and future-ready approach, one that accounts for diversity in language, context, and user intent.”
As a council member, Purkayastha will contribute to shaping regional standards across video advertising, measurement and platform governance, with a focus on frameworks that are native to India’s multilingual, mobile-first ecosystem rather than imported from global benchmarks designed elsewhere.
For years, India has been content to play by rules written for other markets. Purkayastha’s induction is a signal that it is done waiting to be consulted and ready to start writing them.
