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Tata Sky to make equity infusion of Rs 5 bn every year over medium term
MUMBAI: Direct-to-home (DTH) television service provider Tata Sky has planned equity infusion of over Rs 5 billion every year over the medium term to meet its capital expenditure and for serving its debt.
The additional equity will be raised from investors other than the promoters and will result in dilution of Tata Sons‘ shareholding from the current 60 per cent but is expected to be gradual.
Tata Sons would remain the single largest shareholder in Tata Sky after the equity infusions over the next few years. Tata Sons holds 60 per cent stake in Tata Sky while News Corp. has an effective stake of 29.8 per cent.
CRISIL, which has rated its bank facilities and debentures, believes that management control will remain with Tata Sons and Tata Sky‘s association with the Tata brand will continue even after its stake gets diluted.
Tata Sky has Rs 17.01 billion of bank facilities and recently raised Rs 1.6 billion through a debenture issue.
The Indian DTH industry is characterised by the presence of few dominant players, leading to intense competition. The competitive intensity is reflected in frequent launches of special offers and discounts and high marketing spends by these players, whose primary goal is to increase their market share. While the industry has witnessed healthy subscriber additions, the overall profitability remains low. CRISIL believes that Tata Sky’s operating performance will improve over the medium term. It also believes that the company’s financial risk profile will remain weak over the same period, marked by negative net worth and stretched debt protection metrics.
Tata Sky narrowed its net loss in the year ended 31 March 2012 from a year earlier, on increasing subscriber numbers.
Tata Sky’s net loss in 2011-12 was Rs 2.98 billion, 36 per cent less than Rs 4.7 billion a year earlier. The company‘s net loss in 2009-10 was Rs 6.26 billion on total income of Rs 11.10 billion. The company‘s net sales were up 18 per cent to Rs 15.9 billion from Rs 13.5 billion a year earlier.
The continuing losses have resulted in piling up of accumulated losses. Tata Sky‘s accumulated losses as on 31 March 2012 would amount to Rs 43.03 billion with the addition of loss in 2011-12 to the accumulated losses of Rs 40.05 billion as on 31 March 2011.
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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.
