As the world rebounds from the pandemic, CNN is launching new-look CNN Marketplace Middle East programming across TV and digital platforms to tell the business stories defining and shaping the region and examine how industries and corporations are adapting at a pivotal time of political, economic and social change.
From 18 September, CNN Marketplace Middle East will offer CNN’s global audience a front-row seat to these seismic shifts, through exclusive interviews with the biggest names in business, unique access to centres of industry and innovation, and on-the ground-reporting from major events across the Middle East as they start to return, beginning with Expo 2020 Dubai, for which CNN is an Official Broadcaster. As well as a monthly show on CNN International, presented by Anchor & Correspondent Eleni Giokos – now based in the UAE, alongside Reporter Salma Abdelaziz, and International Correspondent Jomana Karadsheh, CNN Marketplace Middle East will also include a dedicated new digital section on CNN Business and CNN Arabic.
This latest cross-platform programming is part of a continued global expansion of CNN’s business coverage through the CNN Marketplace franchise, to inform CNN’s global audience of business leaders and decision-makers. This also comprises cross-platform strands for Africa, Asia and Europe. Major focuses for the CNN Marketplace franchise are technology, sustainability, automotive & mobility, health & medicine, energy, and e-commerce.
Reflecting this, CNN Marketplace Middle East kicks off by looking at how economies and companies in the Middle East are using technological advances and innovation to emerge stronger from the pandemic. This first episode explores tech transformation in Saudi Arabia, analysing the new retail revolution across the region for ultra-fast grocery deliveries, being driven by rapidly expanding companies. In the coming months, CNN Marketplace Middle East will deep-dive into topics such as how sustainability is informing business in the region, as policy-makers and the private sector focus on the climate emergency and future of the planet during November’s COP26 summit. It will also examine the burgeoning sector of sports business and events in the Middle East.
“Audiences around the globe are eager to find out more about how businesses and countries are applying innovation and seeing economic growth as the world looks beyond the pandemic,” said Ellana Lee, Senior Vice President, CNN International. “The Middle East has a unique story to tell as it applies new technologies, spearheads many areas of transformation and undergoes economic diversification. Through CNN Marketplace Middle East, CNN will uncover and tell these stories to inform our audiences of the latest trends and developments from right across the region in a way that no other news network can.”
The expansion of the CNN Marketplace franchise bolsters the wider CNN International business offering including flagship daily shows Quest Means Business and First Move with Julia Chatterley, and CNN Business on digital, which has seen its international unique visitors grow by 66% in the last year as business decision-makers around the world turned to CNN for facts and information. This addition will meet the needs of CNN’s large scale audience of global business influencers, which includes 67% of executives at companies with over $100M in revenue, 71% of international business executives and 72% of government policy makers – more than any other international media*. Recent research also found that consumers rate CNN as covering business news better than any other international TV news competitors**.
* GBI 2020 Global Business Influencers 2020 (USA/Europe/APAC/Middle East/Africa)
** CNN Brand Study 2021 conducted by Toluna (19 international markets)
