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BBC to review its online service
MUMBAI: The BBC Trust in the UK has started its first service review of the BBC‘s online service, bbc.co.uk. |
Under the terms of the BBC‘s charter and agreement, the Trust is responsible for issuing service licences for the BBC‘s UK public services. These service licences include the remit of the service, the key requirements necessary to meet the remit and ensure the BBC‘s public purposes are delivered, and headline budget. The Trust must carry out a full review of each BBC service which has a service licence at least once every five years and consult publicly. In the course of the review, the Trust will look at bbc.co.uk‘s role, how it is contributing to the BBC‘s public purposes, the distinctiveness of the service and the way it should respond to changes in user expectations and the web environment. |
BBC trustee Patricia Hodgson said, “The Trust must ensure that the BBC provides distinctive, high quality services to everyone in the UK. bbc.co.uk supports the BBC remit with a large website, covering a wide range of subjects including news, sport, weather, learning, entertainment, children’s and lifestyle. “This review will consider bbc.co.uk‘s performance against the terms of its service licence and will assess whether the licence needs to be developed or changed in any way.” |
The review of bbc.co.uk will include a three-month consultation period and the Trust hopes to gain responses from a wide range of licence fee payers and stakeholders. The Trust will draw on existing data on bbc.co.uk and may also commission new audience and market research. The BBC Executive will be invited to make a submission to the review. The consultation responses and the executive‘s submission will be published at an interim stage in the review. The Trust‘s review of bbc.co.uk will be published early next 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.
