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Disney+ Hotstar collabs with PubMatic to scale advertising reach in India
Mumbai: PubMatic (Nasdaq: PUBM), an independent technology company delivering digital advertising’s supply chain of the future, has announced its association with Disney+ Hotstar, to transform the advertising landscape for digital advertising.
The streaming platform has selected PubMatic to enable programmatic monetization of content across multiple buying channels, including audience-based and 1:1 private marketplace (PMP) and programmatic guaranteed campaigns.
PubMatic’s sell-side technology allows publishers to connect with a broad set of global buyers while allowing them to maintain control over their user experience and maximize revenue yield.
“We are thrilled to collaborate with Disney+ Hotstar,” said PubMatic chief revenue officer, APAC Jason Barnes. “With a rich and diverse catalog of premium on-demand content, Disney+ Hotstar offers premium video advertising at scale for advertisers. By leveraging PubMatic’s sell-side technology platform, advertisers across India and globally can now reach vast and highly engaged audiences.”
“Collaborating with PubMatic aligns with our goal to provide a premium viewing experience for our users, while delivering measurable results for our advertisers,” said Disney+ Hotstar’s head of ads Dhruv Dhawan. “Utilizing sell-side technology like PubMatic offers the advantage of not limiting access to one set of buyers. This approach makes Disney+ Hotstar’s highly engaged audiences available to a broad spectrum of advertisers, and ensures advertising is relevant and engaging for our users.”
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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.
