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GTPL-owned KCBPL gives Kolkata consumers 45 days to choose packages
MUMBAI: GTPL-owned Kolkata Cable and Broadband Pariseva Ltd (KCBPL) has given its cable TV consumers in Kolkata 45 days time to decide on the television channel packages they would want to subscribe to after the switchover to digital cable TV.
KCBPL, in which Gujarat Telelink Private Ltd (GTPL) owns 51 per cent stake, will announce its channel packages and their prices shortly. The MSO is giving subscribers a 45-day preview of 400 plus digital channels and services at the same price that they are paying now for analogue cable TV.
The channels offered by the MSO include 20 HD and radio channels through its Cisco set-top boxes (STBs). GTPL KCBPL is also planning to offer 10 exclusive international channels across genres like adventure, action, and lifestyle.
GTPL KCBPL board member Sumit Bose said the idea behind the preview offer is to allow customers to make up their mind what kind of packages they want to choose.
“We believe in offering value to our customers and hence we have introduced an exclusive preview offer facilitating our customers to select their choice of channels and services from a wide array of offerings,” Bose said.
After the 45-day preview period, GTPL KCBPL subscribers will have to choose from the channel packages that the MSO will announce.
The MSO says the offer is a way of facilitating digitisation in Kolkata which has gone through a lot of uncertainty on digitisation implementation. The MSO is also targeting lower income groups with Cisco Zapper STB targeted at low ARPU customers to be launched in the later part of this month.
He also said that there is a lot of churn happening in the Eastern metropolis due to the lack of preparedness of other MSOs.
“We are well stocked with Cisco STBs. We have almost finished seeding boxes on our network and are thus in a position to attract local cable operators (LCOs) from competing MSOs who are short of STBs to join our network,” Bose said.
Bose said GTPL KCBPL has upgraded its head-end to provide 400 channels which in two-three weeks time will get upgraded to 450 channels and subsequently to 500 channels as recommended by Trai.
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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.
