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Government opposed to fixing DTH channel prices
NEW DELHI: The Government says it is opposed to fixing the prices of the channels for direct-to-home television but is hopeful that market forces would bring down the prices with an increase in the number of service providers. |
He said in reply to another question that the Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) had stated in an order on 31 March that price fixation for DTH should be done by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) as soon as possible and reiterated that till then, its order of June last year that the broadcaster will charge the DTH operator 50 per cent of its listed price for cable platform should be continued. The question of whether a distributor could pick and choose what he wanted to beam should be decided on a case-to-case basis, TDSAT said. |
| In reply to a question in the Lok Sabha (lower house of Parliament), he said that the conditional access system (Cas) was in any case mandated in notified areas, which ‘is in a very limited part of the country’ and cable TV operators in the rest of the country are not mandated to introduce any addressable system. Dasmunsi said that having an option of choosing between cable and DTH had led to healthy competition and led to consumer friendly packages, apart from improving the service. DTH had also benefited rural areas and other interior and remote areas where either no service was available or only Doordarshan had terrestrial reach. The minister said it was not felt necessary for the government to keep any record of DTH viewers. He said the government had not received any reports of Cas service providers misleading the people. |
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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.
