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Apex court stays Tdsat order on cable tariff, raises rates to 42%
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has stayed the directive by the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (Tdsat) setting aside the notification by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) fixing 35 per cent of the rates paid by cable operators for TV channels.
The Apex court has ordered a new tariff formula for all digital addressable platforms, which is 42 per cent of the non-CAS tariffs.
Justices RV Raveendran and AK Patnaik, while hearing the case, also said the current agreements between the DTH operators and broadcasters shall continue.
The order came on a petition filed by Trai against the order of the Appellate body. Earlier, broadcasters charged from DTH and IPTV players 50 per cent of what they got from cable operators.
In its order, Tdsat had set aside Trai‘s notification mandating that broadcasters charge from DTH and IPTV providers only up to 35 per cent of rates paid by cable operators for their channels. The Tdsat order had come on a petition moved on 23 August by leading broadcasters including Zee Turner, Viacom18, Sun TV and Star Den Media Services.
However, the bench today increased the price band and fixed it to 42 per cent of the cable price to be charged by the broadcasters from the DTH operators.
Trai had on 21 July last year notified that a new wholesale tariff structure would be effective from 1 September 2010, whereby broadcasters can charge only at 35 per cent of rates that they charged from normal cable operators while supplying service providers on platforms such as DTH, IPTV and HITS.
In separate petitions filed with Tdsat, ESPN Software India, MSM Discovery, Zee Turner and Star Den Media Services said the Trai tariff was not commercially viable. The broadcasters had submitted that Trai had acted in an arbitrary and unreasonable manner and did not consider the suggestions of the stakeholders.
Tdsat Chairperson SB Sinha and members GD Gaiha and PK Rastogi in their order had said Trai should start the process of tariff fixation upon taking the relevant factors into consideration afresh and should for the purpose of laying down tariffs undertake a detailed study of the same.
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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.
