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Homeshop18 signs carriage deal with Sun Direct
MUMBAI: Network18’ home shopping channel, HomeShop18, has signed up with Sun Group’s direct-to-home service provider, Sun Direct ,to expand its reach.
The tie-up will strengthen the distribution and cater to a larger audience with a key focus on the southern markets.
HomeShop18 is already available on Airtel Digital TV, Reliance Digital TV, Dish TV and Videocon D2H.
The tie-up with Sun Direct will give the channel an additional reach of 6.7 million households, as claimed by Sun Direct. The DTH operator has a good footing in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
In order to cater to the additional customers, HomeShop18 is also expanding its call centre operations to handle calls in different languages and grow its logistics reach.
HomeShop18 CEO Sundeep Malhotra said, “Today, HomeShop18 is the name synonymous with value shopping in India. We receive calls from over 3000 cities and towns in India and we are happy to extend our services further to the viewers of Sun Direct across the country. Expanding our reach will help us break language barriers and provide a superior home shopping experience. And, what better way to expand than to tie up with leading DTH player Sun Direct, adding over 6.7 million households to our existing reach.”
The channel offers a range of products from home & kitchen, mobiles, electronics, home appliances, toys and beauty products.
Sun Direct CEO Mahesh Kumar said, “This association reaffirms our commitment to deliver value to our customers. This tie-up will help us bring a world-class home shopping concept offering a wide variety of products and services that our customers can pick and choose without having to move out of home.”
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With 57 per cent single new users, Ashley Madison rebrands as discreet dating platform
Platform says majority of new members now identify as single
INDIA: Ashley Madison is shedding the “married-dating” label that defined it for two decades, repositioning itself as a platform for discreet dating in what it calls the post-social media age.
The rebrand, unveiled in India on 27 February, 2026, marks a structural shift in business model and identity. Once synonymous with married dating, the company now describes itself as the “premier destination for discreet dating” under a new tagline: Where Desire Meets Discretion.
The pivot is data-driven. Internal figures show that 57 per cent of global sign-ups between 1 January and 31 December, 2025 identified as single: a notable departure from the platform’s married core. The company argues that its community has already evolved beyond its original positioning.
“In an age where our lives have been constantly put on public display, privacy has become the new luxury,” said Ashley Madison chief strategy officer Paul Keable. He framed the platform’s offering as “ethical discretion” for singles, separated, divorced and non-monogamous users seeking private connections.
The shift also taps into wider digital fatigue. A global survey conducted by YouGov for Ashley Madison, covering 13,071 adults across Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and the US, found mounting discomfort with hyper-public online lives.
Among dating app users, 30 per cent cited constant swiping and messaging as a source of fatigue, while 24 per cent pointed to pressure to curate public-facing profiles and early personal disclosure. Some 27 per cent said fears of screenshots or information being shared contributed to exhaustion; an equal share cited unwanted attention.
The retreat from oversharing appears broader. According to the survey, 46 per cent of adults actively try to keep most aspects of their life private online. Only 8 per cent feel comfortable sharing most aspects publicly, while 35 per cent say they are becoming more selective about what they disclose.
Ashley Madison is betting that this cultural recalibration towards controlled visibility can be monetised. By doubling down on privacy infrastructure and reframing itself around discretion rather than infidelity, the company is attempting to convert reputational baggage into a premium proposition.
