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BBC’s re-invention through different media enables it to stay relevant: Bennett
MUMBAI: The BBC‘s repeated reinvention of itself through different media has enabled it to remain relevant over eight decades, reveals BBC Vision director Jana Benett.
New technology has transformed services provided to viewers over the last five years. Currently, the BBC iPlayer is establishing itself as a viewing portal and attracts 600,000 visitors a day. The site attracts more than ten million people a week.
The remarks were made by Benett at the London School of Economics. She explained that four thousand people work in her division, many of them programme makers, located in four production bases all over the country.
One of the reasons it‘s called Vision and not simply television is that it includes multimedia commissioning and production, that is designed to give audiences great programme content whether they are watching on a TV or any other screen.
Remarked Benett, “Just over a third of the licence fee comes to BBC Vision. In return, people in this country get a multimedia powerhouse that‘s unique in the world. We commissioned around 20,000 hours of programmes last year, and invested an estimated ?1.1 billion in this country‘s creative industries.
“Our channels and services are performing extremely well at the moment: appreciation scores are high, audiences are buoyant and programmes are winning scores of awards.”
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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.
