News Broadcasting
NDS hits 30 m mark on pay-TV subscribers
AMSTERDAM (HOLLAND): News Corp subsidiary NDS claims that it has become the world’s first company to supply smartcards to 30 million active digital pay-TV subscribers.
The declaration comes after the highest-ever revenues in any quarter for NDS announced in August 2002 , which were 65.0 million and a 20 per cent increase over the last quarter of the previous financial year. For the full year, revenues increased 12 per cent from 215.6 million to 240.8 million, with conditional access revenues at 41.7 million for the quarter, a company release states.
2002 continued to be a record year for NDS and growth has been strong in US, UK, Israel and Asia-Pacific. In addition, NDS recently reached an agreement with Scientific-Atlanta to implement its conditional access technology into Explorer digital interactive set-tops that will be provided to Cablevision.
In June this year, Motorola agreed to integrate NDS interactive and conditional access solutions with their digital set-top boxes. In the UK and Israel NDS customers have continued to experience growth in subscriber numbers as they offer advanced interactive television on low cost set-top boxes. Asia-Pacific has been boosted by the launch of SkyLife in Korea and initial roll-out of set-top boxes is now occurring in China. Sichuan Provincial Network launched its digital interactive TV service in May 2002, using NDS’s end-to-end solutions, including the Open VideoGuard conditional access system.
News Broadcasting
Parikshit Luthra exits CNBC-TV18 after 20-year run
Former bureau chief to take brief pause before next role
NEW DELHI: Senior journalist Parikshit Luthra has signed off from CNBC-TV18, marking 28 February 2026 as his final day and closing nearly two decades with Network18 Media & Investments Limited, including eight years at the business news channel.
During his tenure, Luthra interviewed prominent business leaders and Union ministers, reporting on economic policy, corporate strategy, the automobile sector and financial markets. His coverage spanned key inflection points in India’s economic narrative.
He also led new programming formats such as Newscentre, Global Eye and Global Lens, shows that examined politics and foreign policy through an economic prism, reflecting the channel’s push towards globally linked business reporting.
In a LinkedIn post, Luthra said his final weeks were spent covering the Union Budget, the India AI Summit, India’s trade agreements with the US and EU, and the group’s flagship Rising Bharat Summit 2026. He added that he continued anchoring until his last day and briefly met Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his closing assignments.
Luthra joined CNBC-TV18 in June 2018 as assistant editor, later rising to senior editor and chief of bureau, a position he held for over two years. Before that, he worked with Republic TV and CNN-News18.
He said he plans to take a short break before embarking on his next professional chapter.
