ATF 2014: foreign drama, entertainment fever

Even the show is held by the end of the year, there is a strong demand of immediate content. ‘In the case of finished product, some TV channels requested the content straight away because they need it to fulfill a concrete demand for the next weeks. But it is not the same for formats: the clients interested on them are planning the acquisitions for next year’, an experienced distributor says.

Important trends are taking place in the top Asian territories. Because of the fierce competition, Indonesian broadcasters are trying new things: SCTV is today the leading channel with a mix of local daily drama series and entertainment; RCTI is sharing the second place with ANTV, who used to be on the 6th position: both are betting on foreign dramas, Korean and Indian, respectively.

Devi Noviana, head of acquisitions, RCTI: ‘We are doing really well with Korean series: The Heirs (SBS) has premiered with 20 rating points and we are planning to launch new titles in the near future, such us My love from the star. Due to the strong competition we are now opened to other fiction origins, and at ATF we are meeting new distributors’.

More news from Indonesia? Dini Putri has returned to RCTI, as programming director. The FTA station NET, launched on May 2013, is attending the show for the first time with three executives. ‘Ninety percent of our programming grid is produced in house. We are looking for game shows and variety and magazines programs’, says Mira A. Soenoto, assistant VP of acquisitions and international relations.

There are also big opportunities on the entertainment format side, with China as the top demanding market followed by Vietnam and Thailand. Their buyers are looking for the next big hit. ‘We are meeting new providers here in Singapore, especially from Israel, which are developing really good concepts and easy-to-adapt formats’, explains a Thai broadcaster.

Co-productions and co-developments are more and more important in Asia. Marini Ramlan, general manager, content innovation & digital, Primeworks Studios (Malaysia) is the head of the Media Prima’s production house: ‘We have made three co-productions with Japan: a factual series of 2 episodes with Fuji TV; a travel series based in an own format with Nippon TV; and Finding the wasabi, a co-production between Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and TBS (Japan). We are also generating more content for our digital platforms’.

Singaporean production company IFA Media (Infocus Asia) announced a new 2015 coproduction with China Intercontinental Communication Center (CICC). Crossroads: The Silk Road will be shot in four countries over thousands of kilometers, across some of Asia’s most epic landscapes.

Digital continues strong… Fuji TV (Japan) will launch a full-scale Internet and cable VOD distribution platform in Singapore through StarHub TV, delivering hit dramas such as Nobunaga Concerto and Dear Sister starting Spring 2015. Since 2013, the company has been strengthening its internet VOD distribution around the world, supplying contents to distributors in North, Central and South America, Europe, China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. 

IAHGames started global distribution of its online games on M2B World Asia Pacific’s WOWtv. With over 37 million registered users spreading across 7 countries, IAHGames has at least 7% of the users paying. M2B’s managing director & CEO, Percy Chua Soo Lian, says: ‘Games are top content in the multimedia business. Games and related hardware are the future of entertainment on the WOWtv’s integrated media platform’.

WOWtv has recently partnered kids SVOD system Toon Goggles (USA), which will now appear on all WOW! Ultra TV set-top boxes. The platform is available on Samsung, Sharp, VIZIO, Sony, Seiki, Roku, among others.

Yesterday it was held the conference What are the Kids consuming today? There, Eurodata TV Worldwide study found that dedicated children channels are seeing an increase in market shares as kids’ TV consumption remains high across the globe. ‘Globally, 66% of children’s favorite shows falls under the animation genre. This percentage is higher in Asia with 85% of children top shows being animation’, it was highlighted.

Syahrizan Mansor, director, Programming and On Air, Nickelodeon Asia, explains about the Animation Lab held in ATF: ‘It is a great idea, definitely. We share some concepts about the kind of shows we are looking for and how we pitch them to producers. We see very good ideas from Singapore and Malaysia. We regularly buy some Asian series and our intention is to produce our first local production soon’.

Fabricio Ferrara, from Singapore