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NDS expands Indian ops with new office in Mumbai
MUMBAI: With Conditional acces coming in next year and DTH taking hold in the country the time is right for television technology firms to take a serious look at India. One such firm is the News Corp owned NDS, which provides technology solutions for digital pay-TV. It has opened a dedicated sales and support operation in Mumbai. NDS chairman and CEO Dr Abe Peled, said, “NDS has had a research and development facility in Bangalore for over five years. This has grown to nearly 600 employees. NDS Bangalore is pivotal in our ability to roll out state-of-the-art technologies, such as advanced middleware solutions, digital video recorders (DVR) and interactive TV applications, to “The opening of the NDS Mumbai office, is in recognition that the Indian market itself is ready for the wide-scale deployment of digital pay-TV. NDS has been growing at a compound rate of 15 per cent. We have 66.6 million active Smart Cards using our VideoGuard for conditional access globally. Our middleware is present in 45 million set top boxes. 4.2 million of our Digital Video Recorder (DVR) software has been shipped. Our innovation in DVR shows that we are ken on merging technologies. DVR marks a fundamental change in how people watch television. This basically is a shift from a time viewing paradigm to a content viewing one. ” |
As of now NDS has two clients in India – the Tata Sky Peled claims that NDS provides a competitive advantage because its services go beyond just securing content. “Our message to the cable fraternity is that you cannot afford not to have NDS. There is this notion that we are expensive. But when we have dialogues with them I think that they will be surprised at our edge. After all it is a long term investment for them and it is important to choose the right partner.” 30 per cent of NDS‘ revenue goes into research and development activities says Peled. NDS India VP, GM Vladimir Ruppo says that the Bangalore center is fully responsible for delivery and product ownership. “The focus is on the Mediahighway middleware which is a software glue within the set top box and can also act as an end to end solution. It is built on Modular Architecture and can work on any set top box. It has already been integrated with 60 set top box vendors. Right now the Bangalore center is working on “This solution is aimed at allowing a broadcaster to make dynamic changes and also the user can have a richer experience. The subscriber will be allowed to choose his/ her EPG scheme. The Bangalore office is also working an a solution for enabling mobile TV and also on high definition. It can also offer an end to end IPTV solution which will offer IP connectivity.” Coming back to its existing deals in India NDS end-to-end systems are deployed by Tata Sky to offer a range of digital and interactive TV services that give their subscribers greater choice, control and convenience. The NDS systems deployed include NDS VideoGuard conditional access solution (CAS), |
For example there is a favourite channels feature which offers a display of key channels. Then there is the parental control feature which allows for disabling of channels deemed inappropriate for children by their parents. The EPG also sports multi lingual capabilities. So a bradcaster can offer a feed |
Applications
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.
