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Sahara to enter cable TV biz via Digicable; Ashmore exits
MUMBAI: Sahara Group is acquiring a majority stake in Digicable Network (India) that will mark the Lucknow-based financial services-to-real estate-to-media conglomerate‘s entry into the cable TV business ahead of the government‘s digitisation mandate.
Ashmore will exit from Digicable after investing in the company in 2007. The UK-based global private equity fund held equal stake of 49 per cent in Digicable and Broadband Pacenet, both promoted by Jagjit Kohli and Yogesh Shah.
Digicable was 51 per cent owned by Broadband Pacenet, the Mumbai-based broadband services provider, and 49 per cent by Ashmore. This in effect gave Ashmore around 74 per cent stake in Digicable, the multi-system operator (MSO) with a pan India footprint.
Highly placed sources have confirmed the deal to Indiantelevision.com.
The transaction will be a two-way process. Steller Interactive Media Pvt Ltd, the parent company through which Kohli and Shah hold their stakes in Digicable and Broadband Pacenet, will first buyout Ashmore with the support of Sahara. Steller Interactive Media, after taking full ownership of Digicable and Ashmore, will then sell majority stake to Sahara.
Post transaction, Sahara is likely to hold 74 per cent stake in both the companies while the remaining will be with Kohli and Shah, sources said.
Sources could not confirm the exact amount Ashmore took home to exit from its cable and broadband investments in India. The private equity firm had poured in around $240 million into the company and was looking to exit from its sour investments.
Sahara had shown nascent interest in cable and IPTV business years back but did not venture into it due to the revenue leakages from the last mile that was owned by the local cable operators. The analogue cable market was also highly fragmented. Sahara’s interest now stems from the mandate to the cable TV industry to switch over nationally from analogue to digital by December 2014, beginning with the four metros over the next three months.
Sahara Group also owns a broadcasting business. Sahara One Media and Entertainment Ltd operates in the motion pictures and Television arena. The company runs three channels – Sahara One, Filmy and Firangi.
Digicable was started in 2007 by Kohli, along with his business partner Yogesh Shah, soon after he quit Zee Group‘s Wire & Wireless India Ltd (WWIL). He had then roped in Ashmore to invest in the business.
Also read:
UK private equity firm Ashmore takes 49% in Jagjit Kohli‘s new cable venture
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Inshorts Group chief Deepit Purkayastha joins IAB video council for Southeast Asia and India
The co-founder and chief executive of the short-form content platform has been inducted into the IAB SEA+India Video Council, giving India a stronger voice in shaping digital video frameworks
NOIDA: India has long been the world’s most chaotic, multilingual and mobile-first digital market. Now, one of its most prominent short-video executives is getting a seat at the table where the rules are written.
Deepit Purkayastha, co-founder and chief executive of Inshorts Group, has been selected as a member of the IAB SEA+India Video Council for 2026. Run by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, the council brings together senior leaders from Southeast Asia and India to shape standards, best practices and measurement frameworks for the fast-evolving video and digital advertising ecosystem.
The timing is pointed. According to the IAMAI-Kantar Internet in India Report 2025, over 588 million Indians are now consuming short-video content, with growth increasingly driven by rural and non-metro audiences. India’s active internet user base has crossed 950 million, with 57 per cent of users now coming from rural markets. Yet the frameworks that govern how video consumption is measured and monetised were largely designed for single-language, Western markets and have struggled to keep pace with the scale, diversity and complexity of India’s digital landscape.
Purkayastha is no stranger to these debates. He already serves on the AI Council at Marketing and Media Alliance India and as co-chair of the Digital Entertainment Committee at the Internet and Mobile Association of India. His induction into the IAB SEA+India Video Council extends that influence into the global video standards arena.
Inshorts Group sits squarely at the intersection of these forces. Its flagship product, Inshorts, India’s highest-rated short news app, reaches 12 million active users with 60-word news summaries. Its sister platform, Public App, reaches 80 million monthly active users across more than 700 districts and 12 languages, serving communities that most global platforms barely register.
Purkayastha said the opportunity was about building something more representative. “India today sits at the centre of the global video ecosystem, but the frameworks that define how value is created and measured have not always kept pace with the realities of our market,” he said. “Being part of the IAB SEA+India Video Council is an opportunity to contribute to a more representative and future-ready approach, one that accounts for diversity in language, context, and user intent.”
As a council member, Purkayastha will contribute to shaping regional standards across video advertising, measurement and platform governance, with a focus on frameworks that are native to India’s multilingual, mobile-first ecosystem rather than imported from global benchmarks designed elsewhere.
For years, India has been content to play by rules written for other markets. Purkayastha’s induction is a signal that it is done waiting to be consulted and ready to start writing them.
