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Dish TV crosses 8 mn subs, scales up growth forecast
MUMBAI: Dish TV has scaled up its growth forecast for the fiscal as it mops up 1.1 million subscribers since 1 April, gaining from an improved economy and a stronger demand for DTH service in a sports-heavy year.
Dish TV has crossed eight million subscribers and hopes to end the financial year closer to the 10-million mark, retaining its market leadership position by some distance.
The direct-to-home (DTH) operator is targeting three million subscribers during the full-fiscal period, up from its original forecast of acquiring 2.5 million customers.
“We have scaled up our customer acquisition target from 2.5 million to three million in FY’11. We have had a very good start, adding 1.1 million subscribers, due to our better distribution in the market. Customers have also liked our content packages and pricing,” says Dish TV COO Salil Kapoor.
The DTH sector has gathered 2.5 million subscribers during the first three months of the fiscal, much in line with the forecast of adding 11 million customers in 12 months. Estimates peg the customer acquisition figure at 4.1 million for the period from April to 25 August.
“We don’t see any reason to revise upwards our forecast for the sector and stick to the 11 million figure. It is just that some players are doing better,” says Kapoor.
For the fiscal’s first quarter, Airtel Digital TV has added 700000 subscribers and has a total base of 3.6 million customers. During the same period, Tata Sky and Sun Direct have collected 420,000 subscribers each. Big TV and Videocon d2h have taken home 210,000 and 190,000 customers respectively, according to industry estimates.
“We have added 700,000 subscribers in the first quarter. The market is definitely looking better than what it was last year. ARPUs (average revenue per user), however, have almost stayed flat,” says Bharti Airtel director & CEO – DTH Ajai Puri.
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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.
