Cable TV
Discovery Travel & Living premieres reality show ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ from 15 May
MUMBAI: Taking the Theme Week series forward from 15-24 May, niche channel Discovery Travel & Living premieres India’s first cookery and chef’s life based reality programme Hell’s Kitchen. Host Gordon Ramsay’s name is synonymous with outstanding fine dining, apart from being known as the most the foulest-mouthed chef in Britain.
With Hell’s Kitchen, Discovery Travel & Living brings an entertaining reality series like no other. Watch the Michelin starred chef who gives new meaning to the word rude and gives a whole new dictionary of new and original insults for all who appear on the show. The series will air from 15 – 19 May at 9 pm.
Footballer turned chef Ramsay’s legendary temper precedes him and has made him a favourite with viewers abroad.
For Ramsay, failure is not an option. In this series of Hell’s Kitchen, twelve aspiring chefs compete to impress Gordon Ramsay as he works to open a world-class restaurant and discover the next culinary star who will get to own his or her dream restaurant.
Discovery Networks India vice president – Lifestyle Aditya Tripathi said, “Hell’s Kitchen is filled with a variety of emotions making the programme highly entertaining. Every participant has to display real nerve, mental toughness and great culinary skills to win the restaurant.”
In Hell’s Kitchen, Ramsay is often compared to American Idol host Simon Cowell, but Ramsay actually makes Simon Cowell look very meek. Ramsay is rude and crude not only to his employees and participants but also to his customers.
The participants have varying culinary experience but they all have a passion for food and the ambition to open their own restaurant in common. In the process of achieving perfection, Gordon unleashes on his subjects the utmost degree of battering and pressure.
One has to be as determined and ready to risk their sanity before subjecting themselves to even attempt to cook with Ramsay breathing down their neck. Gordon Ramsay’s serves up helpings of terror, tears, tantrums and triumphs as cameras follow the competing chefs to reveal who will survive the heat of Hell’s Kitchen.
Examples of Gordon’s wrath that makes the programme unique, captivating and entertaining, including rewards & appalling punishments:
>Ramsay passed the two teams to his maitre d’ for a lesson in how to properly set a dining table. The teams then had to replicate a sample table containing over 90 items within a five minute time period. The winning team received an afternoon of spa treatments, while the losing team had to clean and polish all the glass and silverware and set all 100 tables in the restaurant.
>Ramsay gave the contestants 15-minutes to create an original dish out of a tray of 15 different leftovers from the previous evening’s service.
Ramsay became an OBE for services to the hospitality industry in Her Majesty’s New Year’s honours list for 2006. The remaining five episodes of Hell’s Kitchen will air every Monday, from 22 May till 19 June at 10 pm.
Cable TV
Hathway Cable appoints Gurjeev Singh Kapoor as CEO
Leadership change comes as cable TV faces shrinking subscriber base and modest earnings pressure
MUMBAI: Hathway Cable and Datacom has tapped industry veteran Gurjeev Singh Kapoor as chief executive officer, marking a leadership pivot at a time when India’s cable television business is under mounting strain.
Kapoor will take over from Tavinderjit Singh Panesar, who is set to retire in August after a long innings with the company. Panesar, chief executive since 2023, has held multiple leadership roles at Hathway, including his latest stint beginning in 2022.
Kapoor brings more than three decades of experience in media and entertainment. He most recently led distribution at The Walt Disney Company’s Star India business, now part of JioStar. His career spans television distribution and affiliate partnerships, with stints at Sony Pictures Networks India, Discovery Communications and Zee Entertainment.
Panesar, with over three decades in the industry, has worked across strategic planning, distribution and business development in media, broadcasting and manufacturing. His past associations include ESPN Star Sports, Star India, Apollo Tyres and JK Industries.
The transition lands as the cable sector grapples with structural disruption. Traditional operators are losing ground to streaming platforms, while telecom and broadband players tighten the squeeze with bundled offerings.
An EY report estimates India’s pay-TV base could shrink by a further 30 to 40 million households by 2030, taking the total down to 71 to 81 million. The slide follows a loss of nearly 40 million homes between 2018 and 2024, a contraction that has already wiped out more than 37,000 jobs in the local cable operator ecosystem.
Hathway’s numbers reflect the strain. The company reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 93 crore for FY25, down from Rs 99 crore a year earlier. Revenue inched up to Rs 2,040 crore from Rs 1,981 crore. As of December 2025, it had about 4.7 million cable TV subscribers and roughly 1.02 million broadband users.
Kapoor steps in with a familiar brief but a shrinking playbook. In a market where viewers are cutting cords faster than companies can reinvent them, the new chief executive inherits a business fighting to stay plugged in.
