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DTH ops to launch HDTV in time for Commonwealth Games
NEW DELHI: Even as Prasar Bharati has announced plans to start beaming in High Definition by the time of the Commonwealth Games in October this year, major private DTH players like Dish TV, Tata Sky and Airtel Digital TV said they would be launching HD services within the next couple of months.
Dish TV chief operating officer Salil Kapoor said, “We are currently evaluating the market and would launch the HD service in the first quarter of next fiscal.”
Airtel Digital Marketing Head Sugato Banerjee told Indiantelevision.com that it was too early to say how much the consumer would be made to pay, but it was clear that huge costs would be involved.
The set-top boxes were bound to be more expensive. “Money would also go into more sophisticated uplinking facilities, and the cost will also go up because each HD channel takes five times the space of a normal satellite channel,” said Banerjee.
Tata Sky also will be introducing interactive channels in the gaming and education space and promote personal video recorder (PVR) STBs following an increasing demand by families trying to keep up with their favourite programmes. Since all channels offer similar programming, it will be the value added services that will help the DTH players, it is felt.
The country today has seven players in the DTH sphere, the others being Dish TV, Sun Direct, Airtel Digital TV, Big TV, Videocon D2H and DD Direct Plus.
Samsung, LG and Sony are ready to launch full HD televisions in India.
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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.
