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CWG: DD to pay Rs 680 mn to Australia’s Global TV for IBC project
NEW DELHI: Doordarshan is paying a sum of Rs 680 million to Australia’s Global Television and its Indian partner Shaf Broadcast to design, install and operate the International Broadcast Centre (IBC) for the Commonwealth Games in October.
Australia’s leading and most experienced services provider to the television industry, Global was selected for this turnkey project from a tough international field after an intensive three-month evaluation period.
The IBC will be the hub for all Commonwealth Games broadcasting activity, handling incoming television pictures and sound from the host broadcaster, distributing that footage to international rights holders and managing rights holders’ outgoing transmissions.
Doordarshan Director General Aruna Sharma told indiantelevision.com that the Delhi Commonwealth Games IBC will house studio and reporting facilities for broadcasters and journalists from around the world. Occupying 8,000 square meters, up to 1,500 broadcast professionals will be based at the IBC.
Sharma said this is part of the total budget of Rs 3.66 billion for the Games sought by Doordarshan. But the total is for coverage of the games and does not include expenditure being incurred by Doordarshan as right holder broadcaster.
She also said that she would be able to give details of the revenue from the money to be earned from various international broadcasters for rights, and the estimated commercial revenue, only closer to the games.
She said Doordarshan had made inroads amongst cable operators and multi-system operators in educating them about high definition television which will be introduced in the country along with the Commonwealth Games. Sharma said she had been meeting representatives of MSOs and cable operators in Mumbai and Delhi to answer any queries about HDTV.
The XIX Commonwealth Games Delhi 2010 will be held from 3 to 14 October. The competition will feature 17 sports, with around 8,500 athletes and officials from 71 Commonwealth Games Federation member countries expected to attend.
She was happy that some direct-to-home (DTH) players had introduced HDTV, as she said this would help the country to move to better technology.
Two HDTV studios will be established by Doordarshan in Delhi and Mumbai, and field production and post production facilities in four metros. The HDTV uplink will be set up at Delhi , and HDTV terrestrial transmitters will be installed in four metros.
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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.
