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Hathway Cable plans to invest Rs 2.15 bn in FY’11
MUMBAI: Hathway Cable & Datacom will be on an overdrive to ramp up its digitisation, last mile ownership and broadband subscriber base this fiscal.
India’s leading multi-system operator (MSO) plans to invest Rs 2.15 billion during the year, a bulk of which will be towards acquiring local cable operators (LCOs).
Hathway plans to pump in Rs 1.2 billion towards acquisitions, hoping to take its primary direct points to half a million. The last mile access directly to the customer homes will allow it to offer value-added services and create a window for lifting the ARPUs (average revenue per user) in future.
“We plan to invest Rs 1.2 billion for acquisition of last mile in FY’11. We should have half a million primary direct points by then,” says Hathway Cable & Datacom managing director and chief executive officer K Jayaraman.
For boosting its cable Internet presence, Hathway will invest Rs 600 million during the fiscal. The plan is to have a subscriber base of half a million.
“The broadband division will be a separate SBU. Our focus will be to increase our net subscriber base. We expect the ARPUs to stay flat at Rs 330,” says Jayaraman.
Hathway will need to fund only Rs 350 million for seeding a million digital set-top boxes (STBs) this year. “We have got into a financing arrangement with the vendor (NDS). We will pay a limited percentage upfront while the remaining amount will be paid over 36 months. This will allow us to conserve capital,” says Jayaraman.
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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.
