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Dish TV ups STB price as step to expand margins
MUMBAI: Dish TV, India‘s largest direct-to-home (DTH) company, is hiking the price of its set-top boxes (STBs) by Rs 200 a unit from 1 July, a move that will allow it to save Rs 600 million in the fiscal as it plans to add three million subscribers.
Dish TV‘s second hike this year would mean that the STBs would now cost Rs 1390, helping the company to expand its operating margins. In February, the DTH company had increased the price of the STBs by Rs 200 to Rs 1190 a unit.
The subscriber acquisition cost for Dish TV will now fall from Rs 2200 to Rs 2000, well below the industry average of Rs 2400.
“We are increasing the cost of the STBs by Rs 200 a unit at a time when the market uptake is strong. This will help us expand our operating margins. The subscriber acquisition cost will fall to Rs 2000,” Dish TV chief executive officer RC Venkateish tells Indiantelevision.com.
Dish TV has reached close to 11 million subscribers, up from 10.4 million that it had at the end of March.
The company expects its operating margin to expand from 21.4 per cent in FY‘11 to 25-27 per cent this fiscal.
Though the overall content cost will go up this fiscal, it will be lower in percentage proportion to the company‘s subscription revenue. In FY‘11, Dish TV had paid Rs 5.04 billion to the broadcasters, which was 39 per cent of its subscription income.
Dish TV expects to swing into net profit this fiscal as it plans to add 3.5 million subscribers and lift ARPUs up. The subscription revenue is expected to swell to Rs 19 billion in FY‘12, up from Rs 11.9 billion in the previous fiscal.
Dish TV‘s ARPU, which ended at Rs 142 in FY‘11, is expected to be in the region of Rs 160-165.
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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.
