Moët & Chandon is the most valuable wine and champagne brand in the world, valued at US$1.4 billion

Moët & Chandon is also the strongest wine and champagne brand with AAA- brand rating

Lindeman's achieves brand value growth of 81% and is fastest growing brand in ranking

Moët & Chandon is also the strongest wine and champagne brand with AAA- brand rating

In addition to brand value, Brand Finance determines the relative strength of brands through a balanced scorecard of metrics evaluating marketing investment, stakeholder equity, and business performance. Compliant with ISO 20671, Brand Finance’s assessment of stakeholder equity incorporates original market research data from over 100,000 respondents in more than 35 countries and across nearly 30 sectors. In addition to being the most valuable brand in the ranking, Moët & Chandon (brand value up 15% to US$1.4 billion) is also the strongest brand in the ranking with a Brand Strength Index (BSI) score of 82.1 out of 100 and a corresponding brand rating of AAA-.

Moët & Chandon is strengthening its branding with strong retail partnerships with luxury brands including Harrods and Selfridges. Moët & Chandon has launched a permanent champagne bar in Harrods’s food hall, the first of its kind. In addition to high-end retail partners, the brand also partners with online grocery stores such as Ocado and Whole Foods to ensure availability and a strong distribution network across its target markets.

Alex Haigh, Managing Director, Brand Finance, commented: “Over the course of the pandemic, alcoholic brands have been faced with difficult conditions including fluctuating demand due to national lockdowns across the world. The reopening of the economy has allowed the wine and champagne sector to pop many corks in celebration.”

Lindeman's achieves brand value growth of 81% and is fastest-growing wine and champagne brand in ranking

Lindeman’s (brand value up 81% to US$664 million) is the fastest-growing brand in the champagne and wine ranking. The brand climbed two ranks from last year and made it into the top ten most valuable brands in this year’s ranking. Earlier this year, the Australian wine brand celebrated reaching its goal of 100% carbon neutrality across its wine portfolio. The brand is also working towards transitioning to 100% renewable energy by 2024 to reduce its carbon footprint and contribute to a sustainable future. To achieve and promote its sustainable goals, Lindeman’s is partnering with organisations such as the Carbon Trust and Ecologi.

Women filmmakers have beautiful, complex, and nuanced stories to tell – stories which have the power to resonate with people not just in the Arab world, but across the globe. Arab women have been telling these stories for decades.

Netflix is celebrating these stories and storytellers by releasing a catalog of 21 films by female filmmakers spanning various genres including documentary, drama, and romance, via a dedicated collection titled ‘Because She Created’.

The collection includes the works of critically acclaimed directors from Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, and Tunis, and celebrates the creativity of the Arab world’s greatest female storytellers. While these stories are distinctly and authentically Arab, the themes will resonate with women across the world, uniting women from all walks of life through beautiful and poignant series and film.

Cinematic masterpieces like ‘Let’s Talk’ by Marianne Khoury dive into the life of legendary Egyptian Director Youssef Chahine, Nariss Nejjar’s ‘Stateless’ reflects on North African history from a female perspective, Suha Arraf’s ‘Villa Touma’, Leyla Bouzid’s ‘A Tale of Love and Desire’, Fatma Zamoun’s multi-character drama ‘Parkour’ and Suzannah Mirghani’s ‘Al-Sit’ – all bring fresh, unique, and underrepresented narratives to life with the female perspective front and center. 

The collection features many other stories that amplify the work of Arab women behind the camera, amplifying underrepresented voices and giving more people a chance to see their lives reflected on screen. We hope these voices provide inspiration for the wider creative community and highlight the importance of equitable representation storytelling, and why it matters. We’re proud to be working towards filling the pipeline of women in entertainment in the region. More women behind the camera also have a ripple effect for women in front of it. 

Netflix launched the ‘Because She Created’ platform last year as a virtual panel discussion hosting Arab women filmmakers to talk about the evolving role of women in the Arab film industry. Following its success, we also teamed up with the Cairo International Film Festival to host the second edition of Because She Created as a fireside chat with renowned actress Hend Sabry. Our ambition with this collection is to showcase the work of female filmmakers from around the Arab world so that more stories made in the Arab world can be loved globally.

Football fans across the MENA region can now enjoy the upcoming Italian League (Serie A), Cup (Coppa Italia) and Super Cup (Supercoppa Italiana)

The three-year win enables STARZPLAY subscribers across the MENA region to enjoy the European League exclusively

Abu Dhabi Media (ADM), UAE's leading public service broadcaster and media company, and STARZPLAY, MENA region’s fastest growing subscription video on demand (SVOD) service, have secured the exclusive rights to stream the premium Italian League (“Serie A”), “Coppa Italia” (Italy Cup), and “Supercoppa Italiana” (Italian Super Cup), for the next three seasons beginning this year.

The Italian Football Federation granted the rights after a competitive bid by Abu Dhabi Media and STARZPLAY to win the rights to broadcast one of the most powerful European leagues to offer football fans across the region the best quality viewing at the highest broadcasting standards.

STARZPLAY’s reach of over 2.1 million regional subscribers will offer “Serie A” clubs’ maximum visibility to grow the brand across a population of 400 million people. The deal is an example of a successful partnership between ADM and STARZPLAY. They have been strengthening their collaboration to bolster the sports offering (such as AFC, UFC, FIFA Club World Cup) for enthusiasts in the region.

Commenting on the deal, Haitham Al Kathiri, Acting Executive Director of Abu Dhabi TV Network, said: “AD Sports' acquisition of the exclusive broadcast rights to Italian League (Serie A), Italy Cup (Coppa Italia) and Italian Super Cup (Supercoppa Italiana) confirms our leading position, and highlights our technical expertise and media portfolio. We are looking forward to broadcasting the competitions in partnership with STARZPLAY, which is enjoyed by millions of football fans around the world.”

“This milestone comes in line with the digital transformation of AD Sports Channel, which has an extensive track record in covering the most important sports competitions across the world with professionalism and impartiality.”

“Driven by its reputation in covering the most prominent and largest local and international tournaments with the latest technologies and in line with the highest standards of global broadcast quality, AD Sports will continue to fulfill the expectations of viewers by providing premium HD audio and video coverage.” Al Kathiri concluded.

Danny Bates, Chief Commercial Officer, STARZPLAY, said: “Sports in the OTT space is a huge focus for us, and we have been investing in the live sports category over the last year with our platform witnessing an impressive subscription growth. As part of our long-term strategy, we are building this content category into one of our core products, offering the best in sports entertainment to subscribers across the region. With our stellar technical and customer support, STARZPLAY today is undoubtedly the best positioned platform to seize this incredible opportunity.”

“Abu Dhabi Media has been a strong catalyst in driving the sports portfolio for STARZPLAY and we are proud to partner with them once again to bring the popular Italian League to regional fans. Our ability to pitch and secure the exclusive broadcast rights for one of the top European leagues in a highly competitive bid, is a testament of our strength together as a team. We are confident that there is a huge untapped market in MENA which will support our goals for the coming years, and we look forward to additional category offerings in the future,” added Bates.

In 2019, the Digital News Report looked at how young people get their news,1 finding stark differences in news consumption and behaviours among younger people, including a greater reliance on digital and social media and a weaker identification with and loyalty to news brands compared with older groups. Three years later, we now turn our attention to how young people’s news habits and attitudes have changed amid rising concerns about news distrust and avoidance, increasing public attention to social issues such as climate change and social justice, and the growth of newer platforms such as TikTok and Telegram.

Here, we aim to unpack these new behaviours as well as to dismantle some broad narratives of ‘young people’. Instead, we consider how social natives (18–24s) – who largely grew up in the world of the social, participatory web – differ meaningfully from digital natives (25–34s) – who largely grew up in the information age but before the rise of social networks – when it comes to news access, formats, and attitudes.2 These groups are critical audiences for publishers and journalists around the world, and for the sustainability of the news, but are increasingly hard to reach and may require different strategies to engage them.

In this chapter, we supplement our survey data with quotes drawn from qualitative research conducted by the market research agency Craft with 72 young people (aged 18–30) in Brazil, the UK, and the US.

The role of social media in young people’s news behaviours

Since the Digital News Report began tracking respondents’ main source of news, social networks have steadily replaced news websites as a primary source for younger audiences overall, with 39% of social natives (18–24s) across 12 markets now using social media as their main source of news, compared with 34% who prefer to go direct to a news website or app. We also find that social natives are far more likely to access news using ‘side-door’ sources such as social media, aggregator sites, and search engines than older groups.

The social media landscape continues to evolve dramatically, with new social networks like TikTok entering the field as well as existing platforms like Instagram and Telegram gaining markedly in popularity among young audiences. As social natives shift their attention away from Facebook (or in many cases never really start using it), more visually focused platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube have become increasingly popular for news among this group. Use of TikTok for news has increased fivefold among 18–24s across all markets over just three years, from 3% in 2020 to 15% in 2022, while YouTube is increasingly popular among young people in Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America.

And while 25–34s have largely embraced many of the same networks as social natives in their daily lives and news habits, they have remained much more loyal to Facebook (9pp higher for news than social natives) – the network this cohort largely grew up with – and have been slower to move to new networks like TikTok (5pp lower for news than social natives).

What makes these networks so appealing to some younger audiences? Qualitative interviews reveal that they are drawn to the informal, entertaining style of visual media (and particularly online video) platforms – describing it as more personalised and diverse than TV, as a resource for rapidly changing events such as the Russia–Ukraine conflict, and as a venue for niche interests, from pop culture to travel to health and well-being.

On TV we always see the same things, but on YouTube, Spotify, TikTok, we have a range of diversity. … We can get all this and see that there is diversity, society far beyond just what we live.

Male, 18, Brazil

I find [YouTube] more digestible than mainstream media. I also find YouTube to be more interesting because it is more specifically geared towards me.

Male, 23, USA

However, the popularity of online video does not mean text- and audio-based formats don’t still have a big role to play in young people’s news habits. Under 35s still largely say they prefer to mostly read (58%) rather than mostly watch (15%) news – particularly, as our qualitative research finds, when looking for live updates and summaries or when keeping up with what is happening on a ‘need to know’ basis. Some say they seek out a mix of text and video content to better understand information. Others, particularly in Asia-Pacific and Latin American markets, are drawn to audio-based formats like podcasts that allow users to multitask while they listen. There is not a one-size-fits-all approach or medium through which newsrooms can attract younger audiences.

Why younger audiences avoid news

And yet, as more news outlets and formats compete for audiences’ time and attention, we continue to see longer-term falls in interest and trust in news across age groups and markets – particularly among younger audiences. Under 35s are the lowest-trusting age groups, with only a third (37%) of both 18–24s and 25–34s across all markets saying they trust most news most of the time, compared with nearly half of those 55 and older (47%). Young people also increasingly choose to avoid the news, with substantial rises in avoidance among social natives since we last asked this question in 2019. Across all markets, around four in ten under 35s often or sometimes avoid the news now, compared with a third (36%) of those 35 and older.

Why is this happening? Most often, younger audiences (under 35) say the news has a negative effect on their mood (34%) and, most recently, that there is too much news coverage of topics like politics or Coronavirus (39%). In particular, the longstanding criticism of the depressing or overwhelming nature of news persists among young people. For instance, in the UK, two-thirds (64%) of news avoiders under 35 say the news brings down their mood. Our qualitative research participants described forming habits of avoiding this negativity.

I tend to try and limit the amount of negative news I consume, especially first thing in the morning and last thing at night. I don't want it to affect my day or make me worry.

Female, 29, UK

Depending on my mood, if I see news that I know is bad, is going to upset me, sometimes I leave it and read it later.

Male, 24, Brazil

Young people, particularly digital natives (27%), also at times avoid the news because they perceive it as biased or untrustworthy. As under 35s grew up in the digital age and have been socialised by older generations to be critical of the information they consume, our qualitative research suggests they take a particularly sceptical approach to all information and often question the ‘agenda’ of purveyors of news. In this sense, mainstream news brands are not inherently more valued for impartiality by some young people, and their wariness of bias at times pushes them away from consuming news altogether.

I do not think anything is 100% reliable in the mainstream media. You can never think that that is the absolute truth, because we are not sure of anything.

Female, 24, Brazil

A lot of the time, mainstream news can be very biased or politically motivated. This makes it hard to decipher its credibility.

Female, 28, USA

Yet many young people are not necessarily avoiding all news. In fact, many of them are selectively avoiding topics like politics and the Coronavirus specifically. As the Executive Summary notes, these patterns of selective news avoidance are not limited to younger audiences. But our qualitative research suggests that, among these groups, perceptions of political news are intrinsically tied to other themes of news avoidance: beliefs that it is particularly negative, that there is nothing they can do with the information, or that it is less trustworthy than other forms of news. Rather than simply avoiding news, there is ‘news to be avoided’.

I actively avoid news about politics as it frustrates me. It makes me feel small and no matter what my views it won’t make any difference at all to what goes on in the country or world, so there is no point listening to it.

Female, 22, UK

On days where I really want to relax, I avoid political news because it gets me anxious sometimes.

Female, 24, USA

What is news to young people?

These perceptions of too much newsroom attention going towards topics like politics and Coronavirus also reflect younger audiences’ broader desire for diverse news agendas, voices, and perspectives. As we discuss throughout this report, young people – particularly 18–24s – have different attitudes toward how the news is practised: they are more likely than older groups to believe media organisations should take a stand on issues like climate change and to think journalists should be free to express their personal views on social media.

On top of that, many young people have a wider definition of what news is. As our qualitative research reveals, younger audiences often distinguish between ‘the news’ as the narrow, traditional agenda of politics and current affairs and ‘news’ as a much wider umbrella encompassing topics like sports, entertainment, celebrity gossip, culture, and science. This is reflected, for instance, in the examples of ‘news’ our interview participants shared: from stories about the world’s biggest strawberry to pollution on local beaches to the latest episode of Big Brother.

Given that young people are generally less interested in news and access it less frequently than older audiences, it is not surprising that under 35s express lower interest in most news topics generally. But they are particularly less likely to be interested in what they consider to be ‘the news’ – traditional beats like politics, international, and crime news – and tend to be less inclined to consume Coronavirus coverage. Instead, under 35s are more likely to be interested in ‘softer’ news topics: entertainment and celebrity news (33% interested), culture and arts news (37%), and education news (34%).

I like news about sports, food, well-being, and health. I don't like seeing news about violence.

Male, 27, Brazil

Even many of the types of news often deemed ‘young’ topics – for instance, mental health and wellness, environment and climate change news, and fun news or satire – do not necessarily translate into greater interest among all young people across all markets (or at least, interest in news, specifically, about these topics). Younger audiences on average don’t have much higher interest than older audiences in news on social justice issues, for instance, though this interest varies dramatically by market. Interest in social justice news is nine percentage points higher among under 35s than those 35 and older in the UK, on a par across both groups in Brazil, and seven percentage points lower among under 35s in Germany. As we discuss in a later section, those 35 and older are also more likely than younger people to say they are interested in environment and climate change news.

Motivations to access news

This year, we also asked about why people personally choose to keep up with the news. All age groups see the news as equally important for learning new things, but news users under 35 are slightly more motivated than older groups by how entertaining the news is and how sharable it is, and they are slightly less motivated than older groups by a sense of duty to stay informed of news or by its personal usefulness to them.

However, the extent to which young people feel a sense of duty to consume news looks very different across countries – for instance, with huge gaps between those under versus over 35 in Brazil and the US but very small gaps by age in France and Japan. And in the UK, a sense of duty to be informed and feeling the news helps them learn new things are tied for the top motivation for consuming news among under 35s. Together with insights from our qualitative research, this suggests that young audiences engage in a sort of mix-and-match of motivations depending on their interests as well as the types of content they are thinking of or seeking out.

I access the news partially for fun and partially for entertainment but also to be informed. There are also science magazines, where it’s not fun, but it’s not ‘need to know’ either.

Female, 23, USA

I am looking for what I need to know to stay relevant with current events … That news is important and relevant to my life. Also, I look for news that is going to entertain my personal interests and fun news that is exciting to discover such as current celebrity news.

Male, 27, USA

Conclusions

As the digital media environment rapidly evolves and more young adults who grew up with social media enter our sample, key differences among younger news audiences continue to crystallise. The point here is not simply that some of young people’s behaviours and preferences are different from those of older people. They long have been. It is that the differences seem to be growing, even between social natives and digital natives. Many of these shifts in behaviours are so fundamental that they appear unlikely to be reversed with time. The youngest cohort represents a more casual, less loyal news user. Social natives’ reliance on social media and weak connection with brands make it harder for media organisations to attract and engage them.

At the same time, younger audiences are also particularly suspicious and less trusting of all information. This, along with the often-depressing nature of news and the overwhelming amount of information they encounter in their daily lives, makes young people sceptical of news organisations’ agendas and increasingly likely to avoid the news – or at least certain types of news. While young people do not all have the same needs, many are looking for more diverse voices and perspectives and for stories that don’t depress and upset them.

Social natives in particular have increasingly moved towards new visual social networks – but they are not simply all TikTokers, nor do they all have limited attention spans when it comes to serious information. Young people like a range of formats and media, from text to video to audio, and are drawn to information that is curated for them. There will continue to be a place for text, video, audio, and still imagery – sometimes all in one piece of content. And there will be a place for both the serious, impartial tones of traditional media and more casual, entertaining, or advocacy-centred approaches to covering news.

Younger audiences’ definitions of what news is are also wider. Recognising the variety of preferences and tastes that exist within an incredibly diverse cohort presents a new set of challenges for media organisations. But one route to increased relevance for news brands may lie in broadening their appeal – connecting with the topics young people care about, developing multimedia and platform-specific content, and aligning content and tone with format – rather than entirely replacing what they already do or expecting young people to eventually come around to what has always been done. At times, this includes continuing with what news brands currently offer, some of which is highly valued by younger audiences. In moments when they feel they ‘need to know’ what is happening – as with COVID-19 and the Russia–Ukraine conflict – young people still want news brands to be there.

Written by Dr Kirsten Eddy at Reuters Institute

Sequel and Spin-off In The Works; ‘Virgin River’ Enters TV List at #1

All eyes were on Sierra Six as The Gray Man clinched the top spot on the English Films List. Directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, the action spy thriller had 88.55M hours viewed. A favorite amongst fans with a Rotten Tomatoes audience score of 91 percent, the star-studded film featuring Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans, Ana De Armas, Jessica Henwick, Rege-Jean Page, Wagner Moura, Julia Butters, Dhanush, with Alfre Woodard and Billy Bob Thornton, was #1 in the Top 10 in 84 countries. Fans will get to see more of Sierra Six with Ryan Gosling set to star in a newly announced sequel of the film, based on the book series by Mark Greaney. A spin-off of the film is also in development.

The Sea Beast continued to make waves as the animated film pulled in an additional 34.14M hours viewed. In its third week, the film appeared in the Top 10 in 92 countries. Fans were in the mood for a love story as Persuasion had 29.04M hours viewed and was in the Top 10 in 91 countries. Meanwhile, The Man from Toronto and Girl in the Picture had 8.79M hours viewed and 7.36M hours viewed, respectively.

Emotions were at an all time high as Season 4 of Virgin River returned at #1 with 105.44M hours viewed. The small-town drama, based on the Virgin River book series, was in the Top 10 in 71 countries on the English TV List. The Hawkins crew came in #2 as Stranger Things 4 had 74.99M hours viewed, with Seasons 1-3 holding on strong. The Duffer Brother series now sits at 1.33Bn hours viewed on the Most Popular list. Even a zombie apocalypse couldn’t keep fans away from New Racoon City as Resident Evil came in #3 with 73.26M hours viewed. Animated series Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight had 21.02M hours viewed. Closing out the list is The Umbrella Academy with 18.25M hours viewed.

On the non-English Films List, new entrants included Polish coming-of-age story Too Old For Fairy Tales with 10.88M hours viewed and Spanish drama Live is Life with 7.17M hours viewed. Returning favorites include Tawainese horror Incantation, Spanish action-adventure Valley of the Dead, French drama Dangerous Liaisons, Indian dramedy Jaadugar, Italian rom-com Under the Amalfi Sun, French documentary My Daughter’s Killer and Indian action-adventure RRR.

Meanwhile, on the non-English TV list, drama series pulled fans in. Spain’s Alba had 57.74M hours viewed, Korea’s Extraordinary Attorney Woo had 55.07M hours viewed, Remarriage & Desires with 31.51M hours viewed, Alchemy of the Souls with 15.76M hours viewed and Brazil’s Sintonia with 9.24M hours viewed.

ZEE Brand Works launched to leverage ingenious creativity and consumer understanding into competitive advantage for brands and marketers

-  Introduces new & innovative solutions for national outreach across TV & Digital

-  Promises mass reach & hyperlocal influence for brands

Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL), India’s leading media and entertainment powerhouse, in an endeavour to further strengthen its creative offering for its clients across all industries and categories, today introduced ZEE Brand Works.

With client-centricity at its core, the team at ZEE Brand Works aims to provide brands a holistic and wide range of branding, sales augmentation, customer acquisition, new launches, content creation, influencer and integration solutions. Backed by ZEE’s distinguished leadership and expertise across all Indian markets and consumer cohorts, ZEE Brand Works offers brands and marketers an enhanced and direct access to reach, connect and engage with the right audience through ZEE’s portfolio of TV channels in 11 languages, OTT platform ZEE5 and social media platforms.

Speaking about ZEE Brand Works, Mr. Rajiv Bakshi, Chief Operations Officer – Revenue, ZEE Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. said, “Consumers are also increasingly rewarding authenticity and personalization along with purpose-driven brand alignment. Forging a deep emotional connect and occupying a greater share of mind is a primary challenge for both existing and emerging brands. ZEE Brand Works will further boost our endeavor to build brands’ resonance and sales in HSM and regional market clusters by employing the team’s ingenious creativity and inherent consumer understanding. With the onset of this journey, we are excited to partner with like-minded marketers and augment their growth strategies.”

Marking the initiative, Mr. Ashish Sehgal, Chief Growth Officer, ZEE Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. said “As a pioneer in the Indian Media landscape, we have always had a finger on the pulse of the Indian viewer. This has helped us to develop a deep understanding of the myriad mini-Bharat’s which exist within this great nation, each with its own set of norms, sensibilities and traditions. Blending this understanding of the Indian consumer with the marketing requirements of our clientele to develop bespoke brand solutions has always been a hallmark of ZEE.”

He further added, “Given the fluid nature of brands’ marketing objectives in order to keep pace with evolving consumer requirements, we are also enhancing our services with the launch of ZEE Brand Works. Through this, we will enable brands to achieve their objectives across the marketing funnel providing integrated solutions spanning our TV, Digital, Social and Experiential assets resulting in enhanced brand connections, higher engagement and improved marketing outcomes. As an industry leading initiative, ZEE Brand Works will help brands reach the right audience utilizing the best medium(s) thereby boosting overall ROI for our clients.”

ZEE Brand Works introduced new programs that are meticulously designed to reach audiences effectively across brands’ varying objectives:

· Designing Product Launches that offer brands the visibility, grandeur and traction leveraging the distinct strength of ZEE’s network across linear TV, OTT, on-ground and social.

· Creative Solutions to the burgeoning community of new-age entrepreneurs and visionaries, highlighting their key successes, capturing their journeys in building successful companies and showcasing their contribution to India’s economic development.

·  Witness TV stars in their most candid avatar with interviews on iconic scenes and highpoints, gupshup, etc. through Behind the Scenes

·  Celebrate the upcoming festival season with audiences across the country through Khusiyon Ke Avsar.

Having already received accolades for ground-breaking activations for brands such as Pedigree, Dabur Honey Fitness, Ultra Tech Baat Ghar Ki etc., ZEE Brand Works’ existing clientele include GSK India, Pedigree, P&G, Ultra Tech Cement, Perfetti Van Melle, Philips India, Maruti Suzuki India Limited, Mankind Pharma, MTR Foods, Asian Paints, Swiggy and Amazon amongst others.

ZEE5 Global, the world's largest streaming platform for South Asian content, is all set to announce its next original – Duranga. Directed by Pradeep Sarkar and Aijaz Khan, Duranga is an official adaptation of the Korean show named ‘Flower of Evil’.

Helmed by Goldie Behl and Shradha Singh, the romantic thriller will star Gulshan Devaiah and Drashti Dhami as protagonists and will premiere on the platform in August 2022.

Produced by Rose Audio Visuals, Duranga chronicles the love story of Sammit [played by Gulshan Devaiah] and Ira [played by Drashti Dhami], that unfolds in three different timelines. Hiding a twisted past, Sammit maintains a facade of a perfect husband to his Inspector wife — Ira. With a series of twists and turns, Ira begins investigating multiple gory copycat murders by the suspected accomplice of a psychopathic serial killer Bala, twenty years after his suicide. This case leads her to some shocking revelations about her husband! In true Kafkaesque style, the story will show how the protagonists wade through constant problems, despite which, they stand tall. But still leaving you with a question – How well do you know your partner?

The 9-part episode series also stars - Rajesh Khattar, Divya Sheth, Zakir Hussain, Barkha Bisht, Abhijit Khandkekar and Hera Mishra in prominent roles.

Archana Anand, Chief Business Officer, ZEE5 Global, said, “At ZEE5 Global, we have been constantly innovating to launch compelling stories that keep viewers entertained and our latest series ‘Duranga’ is yet another state-of-the-art mystery. Duranga is an adaptation of the popular Korean programme "Flower of Evil'', with a unique twist that makes it more relatable to South Asians. We strive to continue to cater to the ever expanding appetite of South Asian communities, and bring forth such compelling stories. ‘Duranga’ is the perfect addition to our growing line-up of crime-thrillers.”

Nimisha Pandey, Chief Content Officer – Hindi Originals, ZEE5 said, “Korean shows and their intricately relatable storylines have found a huge fan base in India, and we are thrilled to present the first ever adaptation of a Korean series in the Indian market. We are excited to unveil ‘Duranga’ on ZEE5, a unique love story with a twist where circumstances pit lovers against each other. Our vision of creating the show has been brought to life by an exceptional team at Rose. It was a pleasure to collaborate with Goldie Behl, and directors Pradeep Sarkar and Aijaz Khan. With ‘Duranga’, the audiences will witness Drashti Dhami in a stellar performance as a cop, a never seen before avatar for the audiences. Gulshan Devaiah enlivens the complex character of Samit Patel with aplomb, making it a captivating watch. We hope the audiences enjoy the rollercoaster ride that ‘Duranga’ will deliver.”

Goldie Behl, Producer, Rose Audio Visuals commented, “It’s always been a pleasure collaborating with ZEE5 Global and looking forward yet again, this time with Duranga. Nimisha Pandey, the content head at ZEE5 Global has been very forthcoming of the concept of Duranga and gave us the required support while making the show. At Rose Audio Visuals we have always been committed to produce quality, out of the box content which is also entertaining. Duranga is a step forward in that direction. It is a special subject because it explores the concept of marriage but through a unique twisted lens, something you have never seen before. The unusual pairing of Drashti Dhami and Gulshan Devaiah has worked very well for us. Their characters in the show come from very varied, distinct backgrounds and they both have divulged completely into it.”

He added, “Duranga primarily deals with the subject of how well you know your partner and then explores the story further. We may believe that we know our partner really well, but do we really? That’s what Duranga will explore and answer. Very excited to present the show and we hope the audience totally resonates with it the way we did.”

Duranga will soon premiere on ZEE5 Global exclusively.

The first volume of Season 4 of Stranger Things was released May 27, 2022 and several brands who have positioned their products throughout the new season, such as Coca-Cola, Lacoste and Reebok, are seeing valuable exposure.

New data from YouGov Stream—which uses opt-in, zero-party viewership data—reveals that Coke has the highest value placement of any brand with product placement in Season 4 so far at $1.83 million.

The soft drink giant’s highest performing asset was the Can, at $1.17m, followed by the Fountain Cup ($348k) and the Scoreboard ($211k), which was used during Hawkins High’s championship game in episode 1. The valuation for Coke across the first 28 days is nearly four times that of Pepsi’s, whose own placement valuation was $438k across both the UK and US.

Fashion brand Lacoste ranked second in YouGov’s net product placement valuation at $1.8 million, a considerable feat for the French clothing company despite appearing in just one episode.

Several footwear brands featured throughout the first volume of Season 4, with Reebok leading the pack in net product placement valuations at $1.42 million ahead of Nike ($413k), Vans ($379k), and Converse ($144k).

Jif Peanut Butter proved integral to the plot of episodes 4 and 5 in which Joyce Byers breaks a jar of Jif Peanut Butter and uses a shard of glass to free herself from capture. The spreadable condiment brand ranked fourth in terms of net product placement valuation at $879k.

And, with Kate Bush’s “Running up that Hill” becoming one of June's biggest global hits on streaming charts and social media following its deployment in Stranger Things, the Walkman Cassette Player used to play the song that saves Max Mayfield during Episode 4 drove $635k of net placement value for Sony.

Commenting on the data, Associate Director of Product at YouGov, Dominic Prince, said: “Coke, as reportedly the largest buyers of product placement in Stranger Things, unsurprisingly top our leader board for Net Placement Value from Season 4 Vol.1 of the show. Lacoste will also be very happy with surprisingly strong value driven by their polo shirt, which featured in Episode 2, while brands like Reebok and Jif also top our category leader boards with some well-executed placements.

It is Important to note that the figures presented here are values that have accrued already from these two key markets. The audiences will only grow, and these values are set to grow with them. Our total valuation of the product placements in the first seven episodes of Season 4 so far is $13.7m across the UK and US. Factoring in global audiences, the release of the last two episodes, and the lifetime viewership of the season, Netflix are set to deliver many millions more in marketing value for the brands they work with.”

Corporate credit card transactions MENA enterprises in different phases of growth focus on digital advertising online through social media networks.

Tribal Credit has highlighted local enterprises' most significant spending categories based on corporate card spending data from small, medium, and emerging businesses tracked over the last year.

As businesses develop throughout the region, their expenditures are becoming more important to economic growth.

Despite the relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions, 9 out of 10 purchases were made online in recent months, reflecting the shift toward that e-commerce and online shopping. 

As shown by Tribal data, online advertising was the category where companies in various stages of development spent the most during this period, further demonstrating the long-term growth of online sales. 

For companies and advertising service providers, payments for digital campaigns with cards streamline the payment process, control of expenses and the relationship with platforms.

The second largest expenditure on corporate cards was for freight services and logistics, primarily for imports and exports. Growing e-commerce provides companies in various stages of development with an excellent opportunity to expand to additional markets, which has become increasingly important with the growth of e-commerce.  

Lastly, companies spent the third highest amount on technology and computing infrastructure, such as hardware, software, and programming services. Digital infrastructure spending shows that companies continue to adapt their operations to the digital economy. 

In MENA, tribal observed that travel spending, including travel agencies, flights, and hotels, showed the most substantial growth between the second half of 2021 and the first half of 2022. The region's companies in various stages of growth have ranked travel spending among the top ten expenses during the last quarter. A high increase in spending in this sector indicates that companies are expanding their markets and travelling to improve their operations.

The use of services such as Tribal can make managing digital spending more effective by making it simpler to track and manage.

Amira Fadel, Tribal's Regional Manager - MENA, said: "It is important to take into account that companies continue to adapt to the new times with the revolution in disruptive technologies, and many are accelerating their digitization processes. In this sense, it is valuable to see that companies are using their capital and corporate credit resources to make payments, especially through electronic commerce, directly related to boosting business growth."

SMEs in Egypt account for 90% of active enterprises and 80% of GDP, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. In the UAE, SMEs represent 86% of the private sector labour force and 60% of GDP. Furthermore, Saudi Arabian government data indicate that SME contribution to GDP has risen to 28.7% since March 2021. 

Fadel added: “We know that MSMEs are the backbone of the global economy and that most of the world's employment comes from them. Therefore, continuing to bet on the expansion of its businesses is key to continue contributing to economic and social development.”

India’s #1 local language content discovery platform powered by VerSe Innovation, today announced its strategic multi-year content partnership with MENA Newswire, a media-tech startup that is reshaping the future of content distribution across the Middle East region.

VerSe Innovation, currently valued at $5 Billion has rolled out its offering of Dailyhunt in the Middle East countries including UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, and Kuwait.

The partnership with MENA Newswire enables Dailyhunt to deliver content that informs, enriches, and entertains audiences across formats like text and video. Leveraging MENA Newswire’s SaaS platform, Dailyhunt has onboarded a total of 181 news publishers onto the app. The content from MENA Newswire will be available in Arabic and English across the GCC and further afield to the Levant.

Umang Bedi, Co-founder, VerSe Innovation said, “We are excited about our partnership with MENA Newswire, as we expand our offerings across the MENA region. MENA Newswire is the region’s first home-grown internet content provider and is an ideal partner for us. This strategic association is in line with our vision of catering to the unmet content needs of the Middle East market. This will also enable untapped monetization opportunities for MENA Newswire in the region.”

MENA Newswire Co-Founder and Chairman, Heba Al Mansoori said, “With Dailyhunt’s AI-driven model and its advanced machine learning algorithms, all the sites that are onboarded through MENA Newswire gain additional traffic and revenue, which is a massive game-changer in the region. The content license partnership will facilitate partner websites’ organic growth and allow them to leverage their media positions to enhance their content portfolio and develop quality authoritative content.”

Dailyhunt is India’s #1 local language content platform offering 1M+ new content artifacts every day in 15 languages. The content on Dailyhunt is licensed and sourced from a creator ecosystem of over 50,000+ content partners and a deep pool of over 50,000+ creators. Our mission is to be the Indic platform empowering a billion Indians to discover, consume, and socialize with content that informs, enriches, and entertains. Dailyhunt serves over 350 million monthly active users (MAUs) every month. The time spent per daily active user (DAU) is 30 minutes per user per day. Its unique AI/ML and deep learning technologies enable smart curation of content and track user preferences to deliver real-time, personalized content and notifications. The Dailyhunt app is available on Android, iOS and the mobile web.

MENA Newswire is the brainchild of Emirati entrepreneur Heba Al Mansoori who created a region-first newswire that does not rely on outdated HTML feeds or emails to share content. MENA Newswire is a media-tech company reshaping the future of content distribution using a proprietary SaaS content delivery model. An evolution of the newswire that integrates AI, Cloud computing & storage, Google webmaster guidelines, cutting-edge SEO techniques and provides analytics results once stories are published on websites and news portals. MENA Newswire has content agreements in place with over 500 websites – a first in the Middle East region. With widespread coverage across the Middle East and North Africa, this media-tech startup is making a foray into sub-Saharan Africa. Currently, MENA Newswire distributes content in Arabic, English and French languages and is the only regional/international newswire to offer a money-back performance guarantee.