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Tamil Nadu adds to DTH woes
MUMBAI: Tamil Nadu has emerged as the highest entertainment tax imposer on the direct-to-home (DTH) industry, adding to the woes of a sector which is growing in volumes amid losses.
The Jayalalitha government’s imposition of 30 per cent entertainment tax surpasses that of the state of Uttar Pradesh (25%), and is aimed at directly hurting the Kalanithi Maran-promoted Sun Group. Other DTH operators do not have a wide presence in Tamil Nadu, which accounts for approximately seven per cent of the subscriber universe.
The four southern states constitute 22 per cent of India’s 38 million DTH population. Tamil Nadu is a very low ARPU (average revenue per user) market and with opportunities opening up for DTH after the launch of state-owned Arasu Cable, the steep entertainment tax could act as a deterrent.
“The entertainment tax on DTH seems to be very much a political issue at this stage. While in Tamil Nadu it is going to be 30 per cent, in Rajasthan it has been waived. The DTH industry is saddled with taxes,” said Dish TV managing director Jawahar Goel.
India’s largest DTH company, Dish TV, has a subscriber base of around 0.4 million in Tamil Nadu, according to market estimates. The impact will, thus, be minimal compared to the other private players like Airtel Digital TV and Videcon’s d2h.
Dish TV, the only listed company in the DTH space, expects FY’12 entertainment tax as a percentage of sales to be almost 7 per cent versus 3.6 per cent in FY11. The tax in Tamil Nadu will further impact a quarter per cent more.
Dish TV expects its Ebitda to improve from 24 per cent to 26 per cent as it grows in revenue while costs come down proportionately due to economies of scale.
The subscriber growth in the DTH sector is slowing down in the second quarter of this fiscal by about 10 per cent over the year-ago period.
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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.
