MAM
Agassi, American Express team up for US Open
NEW YORK: American Express has announced that tennis star Andre Agassi will promote the company’s sponsorship of the 2003 US Open Tennis Championships through a number of advertising and promotional programmes.
These will include a new television commercial. The campaign will also include new print creative featuring tennis celebrities Monica Seles, James Blake and Daniela Hantuchova.
The tournament kicks off next Monday. Last year, Agassi lost an emotionally charged final to Pete Sampras. For the past 10 years, American Express has served as the ‘Official Card of the US Open’. Through this year’s integrated campaign, the company is looking to provide unique experiences and special benefits for card members, a release said.
The new Agassi commercial builds on the ongoing umbrella advertising campaign The Official Card, which leverages the official card status that American Express holds with a variety of sports and entertainment sponsorships including the US Open.
In the spot, the tag-line is The Official Card of Parenthood showcasing Agassi’s personal interests off the court. It shows Agassi in a humourous scenario using his American Express Card to purchase a ball hopper, which he then takes home and uses to pick up toys his son has scattered across the floor. The campaign will also incorporate a television ad featuring Seles, in the Official Card of Being Yourself, which debuted during last year’s US Open.
Besides Agassi and Seles, rising stars James Blake and Daniela Hantuchova will also be featured in the ‘Official Card of the US Open’ campaign. Each of the players will appear in traditional and non-traditional media — including print, online and major outdoor venues throughout New York. They will also be seen on highway billboards, ferries, buses, subways, taxis and at the US Open.
In addition to the ad campaign, American Express will also have a substantial presence on-site at the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows and will feature several special card member benefit programmes throughout the tournament.
American Express has sponsorship relations with a number of entertainment and sports properties including Madison Square Garden and Radio City Music Hall, the NBA and WNBA, the US Open, Tiger Woods, Tribeca Film Festival and World Golf Championships.
Digital
Content India 2026 opens with a copro pitch, a spice evangelist and a £10,000 prize for Indian storytelling
Dish TV and C21Media’s three-day summit puts seven ambitious projects before an international jury, and two walk away with serious development money
MUMBAI: India’s content industry gathered in Mumbai this March for Content India 2026, a three-day summit organised by Dish TV in partnership with C21Media, and it wasted no time making a statement. The event opened with a Copro Pitch that put seven scripted and unscripted television concepts before an international panel of judges, and by the end of it, two projects had walked away with £10,000 each in marketing prize money from C21Media to support development and international promotion.
The jury, comprising Frank Spotnitz, Fiona Campbell, Rashmi Bajpai, Bal Samra and Rachel Glaister, evaluated a shortlist that ranged from a dark Mumbai comedy-drama about mental health (Dirty Minds, created by Sundar Aaron) to a Delhi coming-of-age mystery (Djinn Patrol, by Neha Sharma and Kilian Irwin), a techno-thriller about a teenage gaming prodigy (Kanpur X Satori, by Suchita Bhatia), an investigative crime drama blending mythology and modern thriller (The Age of Kali, by Shivani Bhatija), a documentary on India’s spice heritage (The Masala Quest, hosted by Sarina Kamini), a documentary on competitive gaming (Respawn: India’s Esports Revolution, by George Mangala Thomas and Sangram Mawari), and a reality-horror competition merging gaming and immersive fear (Scary Goose, by Samar Iqbal).
The session was hosted by Mayank Shekhar.
The two winners were Djinn Patrol, backed by Miura Kite, formerly of Participant Media and known for Chinatown and Keep Sweet: Pray & Obey, with Jaya Entertainment, producers of Real Kashmir Football Club, also attached; and The Masala Quest, created and hosted by Sarina Kamini, an Indian-Australian cook, author and self-described “spice evangelist.”
The summit also unveiled the Content India Trends Report, whose findings made for bracing reading. Daoud Jackson, senior analyst at OMDIA, set the tone: “By 2030, online video in India will nearly double the revenue of traditional TV, becoming the main driver of growth.” He noted that in 2025, India produced a quarter of all YouTube videos globally, overtaking the United States, while Indians collectively spend 117 years daily on YouTube and 72 years on Instagram. Traditional subscription TV is declining as free TV and connected TV gain ground, forcing broadcasters to innovate. “AI-generated content is just 2 per cent of engagement,” Jackson added, “highlighting the dominance of high-quality human content. The key for Indian media companies is scaling while monetising effectively from day one.”
Hannah Walsh, principal analyst at Ampere Analysis, added hard numbers to the picture. India produced over 24,000 titles in January 2026 alone, with 19,000 available internationally. The country now accounts for 12 per cent of Asia-Pacific content spend, up from 8 per cent in 2021, outpacing both Japan and China. Key exporters include JioStar, Zee Entertainment, Sony India, Amazon and Netflix, delivering over 7,500 Indian-produced titles abroad each year. The top importing markets are Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, the United States and the Philippines. Scripted content dominates globally at 88 per cent, with crime dramas and children’s and family titles performing particularly strongly.
Manoj Dobhal, chief executive and executive director of Dish TV India, framed the summit’s ambition squarely. “Stories don’t need translation. They need a platform, discovery, and reach, local or global,” he said. “India produces more movies than any country, our streaming platforms compete globally, and our tech and creators win international awards. Yet fragmentation slows growth. Producers, platforms, and tech move in different lanes. We need shared spaces, collaboration, and an ecosystem where ideas, technology, and people meet. That is why we built Content India.”
The data, the pitches and the prize money all pointed to the same conclusion: India is not waiting for the world to discover its stories. It is building the infrastructure to sell them.
