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DTH Assn’s Harit Nagpal: “We can plug the shortfall in STBs in Phase II”
MUMBAI: They are being pretty direct. DTH TV operators have categorically stated that they can definitely fill the gap should there be any shortage of set top boxes in any city under phase II of the government mandated digitsation of cable TV.
“Digitisation does not need to be postponed,” says DTH Association of India president Harit Nagpal emphatically “ We have been 
digitizing the TV industry for the past seven years. We have national contracts with the broadcasters, which we keep working on with them. We have adequate stocks of STBs and trained manpower to meet any demand which crops up in any city should cable TV operators not be in a position to deliver the set top boxes to their customers.”
He is pretty confident that this can be done overnight. “At Tata Sky we have about 1.5 million set top boxes in stock,” he reveals. “I am speaking for all DTH operators: If there is a colony or a ward or a pincode which is feeling the shortage, we can rush boxes there overnight to plug the shortage.”
Nagpal believes that media reports claiming that 50 per cent of homes in some cities are facing a TV blackout could be attributable to independent cable TV operators in these cities not clearly reporting the number of STBs they have installed. “I think it is a reporting problem,” he says. “The number of TV homes not receiving signals is much lower. Some anomalies like this are bound to occur on an exercise of this scale.”
DTH today accounts for about 27-28 per cent of the entire pay TV base in this country with about 40 million active subscribers according to the DTH association.
Also, according to MIB reports almost 40 per cent of the digitization that has been achieved in the 38 cities has been done by DTH players, among which figure Tata Sky, Airtel, Videocon d2H, DishTV, Sun, DDDirect, Big TV.
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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.
