Applications
Cox launches cable TV app for iPad that learns what users like to watch
MUMBAI: Cable companies have been rolling out their own apps for years now.
But Cox Communications‘ new Contour experience, which incorporates a tablet app, aims to go beyond the usual offerings with a suggestion engine that learns what you like to watch, viewer profiles for up to eight people and the ability to watch different channels on the tablet and television.
Cox director product marketing Bruce Berkinshaw said the company didn‘t construct Contour to fit its own notions of how to surf cable channels. Instead, the app was designed around how customers want to use it.
Support for other tablets is expected by the end of the year.
Cox Communications unveiled Contour earlier this month nationwide, and the app was downloaded more than 10,000 times in the first week.
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The app, which is designed to work on the same network as the DVR, works by overlaying a transparent menu over a live feed of a preview channel.
The main menu offers access to on-demand content, links to channel-based apps like CNN or ESPN and a selection of suggested channels based on the preferences and viewing habits of the person using the Contour app.
Users can search for shows using a traditional program grid, a keyword search or a scrolling list of channels near the current preview channel. Tapping on a program will instantly bring up more information about it as well as the options to record it on the DVR or add it to a watch list.
The currently playing channel on the app can even be changed like a traditional remote control by swiping up or down. When the user is ready, the app can change the TV‘s channel to match the channel on the tablet.
The new DVRs can record up to six shows at once and have two terabytes of storage, or 1,000 hours of programming. Berkinshaw said the DVRs can be networked, allowing customers with two networked DVRs to record up to 12 channels at once.
Applications
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.
