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Star expands into video gaming league
MUMBAI: Pan Asian broadcaster Star has announced the formation of a three-party joint venture with DirecTV and BSkyB to invest in the Championship Gaming Series (CGS), the first international professional video gaming league. CGS offers players the chance to become professional gamers and win cash prize money through a series of online competitions, regional qualifying events in North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Australia and an international World Championship final in the US. In Asia, CGS will host a series of qualifying events in China, South Korea, Australia and Dubai prior to the CGS Regional Championship to be held in October. Four teams of ten players will be selected to represent Asia at the CGS World Championship in Los Angeles in November. Star will produce content for the Asian series and will have access to footage from global CGS events. It will broadcast the League on its channels, which have a reach of over 300 million viewers across Asia. CGS commissioner Andy Reif said, “With a large and fast growing portion of the world’s gamers residing in Asia, this region will be pivotal for the growth and development of CGS. We very much look forward to developing the popularity of this sport and we are confident that with its vast resources across the region, Star will play an integral part in the launch and ongoing success of the league.”
Star COO Laureen Ong said, “We believe that the league’s reality-competition format and vigorous elimination process will have a mass appeal and provide viewers – gamers and non-gamers alike – an unprecedented viewing experience.”
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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.
