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Airtel digital TV offers HD services for Rs 2840
MUMBAI: Airtel digital TV, the direct-to-home (DTH) service from Bharti Airtel, today announced the launch of its high-definition (HD) service ‘Airtel digital TV HD’.
Further fuelling the price war, the company is giving away HD set-top-box (STB) at Rs 2250 for all existing customers going in for an upgrade and for Rs 2840 onwards for all new customers.
The company is offering only ESPN HD feed, while it will add other HD channels over the next few months.
The company also announced that new customers can opt for either the Economy Pack (worth Rs 221 a month with 155 channels) free for 75 days or the South Super Value Sports Pack (worth Rs 144/month with 120 channels) free for 100 days.
It has also launched the Limited Edition ESPN Pack for Rs 99.
Airtel Digital TV also claims that it is the first DTH player to bring in digital Dolby plus sound apart from the latest MPEG 4 DVBS2 technology and HD signal processing using 256MB RAM processor.
Bharti Airtel director and CEO – DTH Ajai Puri said, “Innovative technology that adds value to customer experiences is a vital element of our brand endeavors. HD is usually about visual appeal but our consumer insight says that TV is as much an audio medium as it is visual. That is why we have invested in being the first to bring to India the Dolby Digital Plus sound experience in HD STBs. This launch underlines our key strength of understanding consumer needs and using technology to deliver a simple elegant benefit to our valued customers who will experience the next level of TV viewing in India.”
Dish TV has already cut the price of its HD service to Rs 2,990, after the launch of Tata Sky’s HD service at Rs 2,599.
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Inshorts Group chief Deepit Purkayastha joins IAB video council for Southeast Asia and India
The co-founder and chief executive of the short-form content platform has been inducted into the IAB SEA+India Video Council, giving India a stronger voice in shaping digital video frameworks
NOIDA: India has long been the world’s most chaotic, multilingual and mobile-first digital market. Now, one of its most prominent short-video executives is getting a seat at the table where the rules are written.
Deepit Purkayastha, co-founder and chief executive of Inshorts Group, has been selected as a member of the IAB SEA+India Video Council for 2026. Run by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, the council brings together senior leaders from Southeast Asia and India to shape standards, best practices and measurement frameworks for the fast-evolving video and digital advertising ecosystem.
The timing is pointed. According to the IAMAI-Kantar Internet in India Report 2025, over 588 million Indians are now consuming short-video content, with growth increasingly driven by rural and non-metro audiences. India’s active internet user base has crossed 950 million, with 57 per cent of users now coming from rural markets. Yet the frameworks that govern how video consumption is measured and monetised were largely designed for single-language, Western markets and have struggled to keep pace with the scale, diversity and complexity of India’s digital landscape.
Purkayastha is no stranger to these debates. He already serves on the AI Council at Marketing and Media Alliance India and as co-chair of the Digital Entertainment Committee at the Internet and Mobile Association of India. His induction into the IAB SEA+India Video Council extends that influence into the global video standards arena.
Inshorts Group sits squarely at the intersection of these forces. Its flagship product, Inshorts, India’s highest-rated short news app, reaches 12 million active users with 60-word news summaries. Its sister platform, Public App, reaches 80 million monthly active users across more than 700 districts and 12 languages, serving communities that most global platforms barely register.
Purkayastha said the opportunity was about building something more representative. “India today sits at the centre of the global video ecosystem, but the frameworks that define how value is created and measured have not always kept pace with the realities of our market,” he said. “Being part of the IAB SEA+India Video Council is an opportunity to contribute to a more representative and future-ready approach, one that accounts for diversity in language, context, and user intent.”
As a council member, Purkayastha will contribute to shaping regional standards across video advertising, measurement and platform governance, with a focus on frameworks that are native to India’s multilingual, mobile-first ecosystem rather than imported from global benchmarks designed elsewhere.
For years, India has been content to play by rules written for other markets. Purkayastha’s induction is a signal that it is done waiting to be consulted and ready to start writing them.
