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BBC director Thompson warns against Murdoch’s plan to gobble up BSkyB
MUMBAI: BBC director general Mark Thompson continues his tirade against News Corp-promoter Rupert Murdoch‘s bid for BSkyB.
In an interview with US television PBS’s Charlie Rose, Thompson has warned against potential “abuse of power” by Murdoch-owned media conglomerate if it acquires the remaining 61 per cent of UK-pay TV, BSkyB.
Murdoch is expected to give details of the deal during his inaugural Baroness Thatcher lecture in London on 21 October.
In his interview, Thompson said, “We‘re not saying there‘s been a crime committed here. What we‘re saying is there is – given the scale of the potential ownership in UK media – a strong case for looking at it systemically and deciding whether or not anything needs to be done to address the issue.”
“If the two (News Corp and Sky) were combined, there might be a significant loss of plurality in our media market,” Thompson was quoted by The UK Guardian.
Thomson warned that there is a potential “of an abuse of power.” He, however, maintained that “Cable (business secretary Vince Cable), the relevant minister, will decide whether he wants to refer this. It‘s not that they‘ve done anything wrong.”
Meanwhile, he remained short of asking the UK government to block the deal, but hinted that it would make News Corp a dominant media player in the country.
Murdoch will notify the European Commission of its bid for the pay-TV channel within 15 days.
Thompson has been warning against the consequences of the deal for some months. He had, in his keynote at James MacTaggart Memorial Lecture in August, warned against the concentration of power the deal would represent.
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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.
