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MTV gets socially interactive with Tata Nano’s Drive with MTV II
MUMBAI: Viacom18’s music and youth entertainment channel MTV is vrooming back onto your screens with the second season of its digital show, ‘Drive with MTV’ presented by Tata Nano.
The channel aims to make this season double the fun, double the adventure with some of the craziest and passionate drives. The show’s format is that of a web show spanning 21 days across 3,000 km and over a 100 snapshots. The webisodes will then be telecast across six episodes on television (half an hour), with the key sponsor as Tata Nano on board.
Users will be required to register on drive.mtvindia.com and submit their video entries which showcases their passion for travel. The channel will shortlist entries that are fun, quirky and showcase the road-tripper amongst the contestants. From all the entries they receive, 24 contestants will be short-listed and 12 will be chosen to go on the road trip of their lifetime. The entire journey will be documented and will enfold live on various social media platforms and the Drive with MTV website.
MTV India digital head Eklavaya Bhattacharya elucidates, “They (the contestants) will experience 21 days of non-stop fun, adventure, discovering new places and cultures as they travel across the length and breadth of the country in the Tata Nano. The contestants will be divided into four groups and will start journey from a particular point to four different destinations.”
MTV executive vice president & business head Aditya Swamy further explaines about the format, “Each team will get a budget of Rs 4,000 per day and within the budget the contestants will have to take care of their food, fuel, stay and every expense one can imagine.”
While on the trip, participants will share their experiences live with their friends, followers and the online audience using social media platforms. They will tweet, post updates, share pictures and videos every hour, every day.
Speaking on some changes which will be in place this year, Bhattacharya reveals, “This time the fourth player of each team will remain undecided until the rest of the three players pick him/her up on their way during the journey.They will pick up or select their fourth teammate according to preference or choice. And auditions will take place anywhere and any point of time.”
The idea behind the show is to connect with over eight lakh people on Twitter and more than 15 million on Facebook , and to channelise with the fan club of MTV India. “We have already got over 2500 tweets and has been trending nationally,” states Swamy.
Unlike any reality show, it would be bereft of any judge, and winners would solely be decided on the basis of amount of likes they generate on digital platforms.
“Activities on the road and on the web will get the contestants points. Each at the end of the journey, the team with maximum points will take home a Nano each,” concludes Swamy.
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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.
