Applications
IndusInd Media board approves Rs 5 bn fund-raising plan
MUMBAI: IndusInd Media & Communications Ltd (IMCL) has taken a step further towards its fund-raising plan. The company‘s board has approved a committee of directors to finalise the terms and investors for their proposed fund raising plans of up to Rs 5 billion.
Indiantelevision.com was the first to report that the company had plans to raise Rs 5 billion which it would utilise over a three-year period.
The fund raising will be in the form of equity / convertible into equity instruments. The company intends to use the proceeds to fund capex and acquisition plans.
Meanwhile, Hinduja Ventures‘ (HVL) media segment business, led by IndusInd Media & Communications Limited (IMCL), has posted a 183 per cent jump in net revenue for the quarter ended 30 September over the earlier year period.
Net profit from the segment stood at Rs 175.50 million, as against Rs 62.1 million in the year-ago period.
For the quarter, media subsidiaries reported a consolidated total income of Rs 948.9 million, an increase of 26.39 per cent from Rs 750.8 million in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal.
IMCL operates the multi-system-operator (MSO) business under the Incablenet brand, which claims a subscriber base of eight million across 27 major cities. The other media business of HVL include content creation, acquisition and aggregation for TV services.
IMCL offers 230 channels in the digital mode and about 90 channels in the analogue mode. It claims a backbone of over 10,000 kilometers of hybrid fibre optic network.
IMCL has deployed over 400,000 set top boxes for converting analogue home to digital homes. This also includes 150,000 digital boxes in the mandated Cas areas.
Applications
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.
