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Fox, Time Warner Cable in a spat over contract renewal
MUMBAI: Fox has warned cable subscribers of Time Warner that they may lose access to the Fox network and its sister cable channels if negotiations with the cable platform over carriage renewal don‘t fructify.
In a statement, Fox said that it has “attempted to negotiate in good faith with Time Warner Cable. Our position in these negotiations is entirely reasonable; we are simply asking for fair compensation for the impressive value our Fox programming offers.”
Negotiations are underway for carriage of Fox Broadcasting, Fox Cable and Fox regional sports programming but Fox has already embarked on a print, TV and online marketing campaign.
The move comes a few days after Time Warner Cable unveiled its “Getting Tough” marketing campaign, lashing out at “unfair programming price increases.” The cable platform says that almost 400,000 people visited its Roll Over or Get Tough website and “overwhelmingly supported getting tough on programmers who threaten to hold shows hostage as they demand outrageous price increases, sometimes as high as 300 per cent more than the current contract.”
Says Time Warner Cable chairman, president and CEO Glenn Britt, “Our customers are informing us that they want us to fight rapidly-increasing programming prices. We‘ve heard them and intend to put as much pressure as possible on programmers with unreasonable demands to get our customers the best prices we can.”
This time last year, Time Warner Cable had a disagreement with Viacom over carriage fees. The companies resolved their dispute at the beginning of the year.
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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.
