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Tata Sky and Zee Turner haggle on price
NEW DELHI: Tata Sky’s talks with Zee Turner for its bouquet of channels have got stalled on the issue of price.
While India’s second pay digital platform Tata Sky has evinced interest in the first two of the three bouquets of Zee Turner for Rs 42, the latter is insisting all its 29 channels should be taken.
According to sources close to the negotiations, Zee Turner has conveyed that it’s ready to give all its channels to Tata Sky’s DTH platform for Rs 74 per subscriber, which is 50 per cent of the price that cable operators pay for the channels.
Bouquet 1 of Zee Turner comprises Zee TV, Zee Cinema, Zee News, Zee Studio, Zee Bengali, Zee Gujarati, Zee Marathi, Zee Punjabi, Cartoon Network, Reality TV, CNBC, CNN, Zee Café, Zee Trendz, ETC, ETC Punjabi, Zee Jagran, Zee Smile, Zee Telgu and Zee Music..
The second bouquet includes HBO, Pogo, Awaaz, VH1 and Zee Business. Zee Turner is soft bundling Zee Sports at a price benefit.
The third bouquet, called Breakfree, consists of Zee Action, Zee Premier and Zee Classic, which air movies of different genre and are primarily available on Dish TV DTH platform.
Interestingly, Zee Turner wants to keep Zee Sports out of the negotiations with Tata Sky, saying a deal for the sports channel — holders of cricket rights for matches to be played by India on non-ICC recognised venues — could be done separately.
According to the sources, Zee Turner has reasoned that its demand is based on a recent ruling of a disputes tribunal in Dish TV vs Star case wherein Star was asked to make available its channel to Dish at Rs 27 per subscriber, which is 50 per cent less than the price cable ops pay.
Zee Turner has further said that in the Dish vs Star case, when Dish had wanted select channels of Star, the Hong Kong-based broadcaster was unwilling to accede to the proposal.
Extending the same logic, Zee Turner has conveyed to Tata Sky that it would have to take all its channels.
However, Tata Sky is only interested in the first two bouquets of Zee Turner for a price of Rs 42 per subscriber per month.
On August 8, while announcing the commercial launch of Tata Sky service in 300 cities, company’s MD and CEO Vikram Kaushik had admitted that talks with Zee Turner had not been concluded.
Amongst the 55-odd channels being offered by Tata Sky presently to its subscribers, Zee and Turner channels like Zee TV, Zee Sports, Cartoon Network and Pogo and some third party products like HBO, Reality TV, Awaaz and CNBC TV18 are conspicuous by their absence.
Country’s first pay DTH platform, the Subhash Chandra-owned Dish TV, boasts of 1.25 million subscribers.
Pubcaster’s DD Direct+ claims a subscriber base of 3.5 to 4 million for its subscription-free service of free to air channels.
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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.
