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2011 International Digital Emmy awards announced
MUMBAI:The International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (Iatas) announced at the television trade event MipTV in Cannes, France, the winners of the International Digital Emmy Awards.
A ceremony was organised in partnership with Reed Midem, which was attended by over 300 international executives from the television, broadband and mobile industries.
Highrise: Out My Window (National Film Board of Canada), an interactive web documentary about high-rises and the stories of the people who live in them throughout 13 different cities, won in the Non-Fiction Category.
Battlefront II (Raw TV/Airlock for Channel 4), which follows 12 young people running campaigns to change the world, won its second Digital Emmy Award in the Children & Young People Category.
Shankaboot (Batoota films/BBC World Service Trust) a web series conceived as a vehicle for exploring social problems which are often overlooked by mainstream media in the Arab world, garnered the first Digital Emmy Award for Lebanon by winning the Fiction Category.
The Pioneer Prize was presented to Jon M. Chu, the creator and executive producer of the global online dance show The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers for innovative contributions to the field of digital entertainment.
Iatas president and CEO Bruce L. Paisner said, “This year‘s winners attest to the power of social media throughout the world. We congratulate them for being on the cutting edge of a vital new form of expression.”
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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.
