Asia Roars Back

December 2006

Asia Roars Back

Distributors are feeling upbeat as they head to the ATF.

By Mansha Daswani

The list of exhibitors for this year’s Asia Television Forum is peppered with new attendees to this annual Singaporean market. Spurred by vibrant economies, the emergence of new broadband-delivered services and the looming rollout of 3G mobile platforms, many distributors are taking a new look at the region, refocusing their activities and positioning themselves to take advantage of an increased demand for Western content.

Among the companies that have seen a marked improvement in their business in Asia this year is E! Networks, which at MIPCOM announced the sale of more than 800 hours of programming to broadcasters in the region. “Business is great, really great,” enthuses Christine Fellowes, E!’s managing director for Asia. “We have more programming than ever. It absolutely is the most vibrant, exciting time in my career with E!”

Korea, in particular, has become a crucial market for E!, according to Fellowes. “We’re going gangbusters,” she says, “Korea is one of our top five global markets. There’s been a wild proliferation of pay-TV channels. There’s a high income level there, and a big appetite for international lifestyle trend-related content, so the Hollywood, celebrity, fashion and pop-culture thing we do fits really well. We’re selling to all the top-rated pay-TV channels.”

Japan has also been a good market for E!, as have India and Australia, where E! recently announced mobile deals with FOXTEL by Mobile and Vodafone. Key titles for the ATF include the reality series House of Carters, the animated parody Starveillance and franchises like the 101 countdown series.

LIFE LESSONS

Alliance Atlantis has also noticed an upswing in demand for lifestyle content, according to Nicole Sinclair, the director of sales for Asia, the Middle East and Africa at Alliance Atlantis Communications’ international content-distribution division. “Some of our titles, such as Rich Bride/Poor Bride, Renovate My Wardrobe, Crash Test Mommy, So Chic and Design Rivals will appeal to Asian audiences as they are becoming more interested in activities such as home decorating and personal makeovers,” she says.

Beyond Distribution, meanwhile, has fared well with the 51×1-hour Beyond Tomorrow. “Up-to-the minute science and technology programming is always in high demand,” says Katie Johnson, the VP of international sales for Asia at the Australian distributor. “This new version of the incredibly successful Beyond 2000 series is again proving popular across Asia.” Rounding out Beyond’s factual offerings are I Do… Let’s Eat, Lonely Planet Six Degrees and MythBusters.

CABLEready will be showcasing It Could Happen Tomorrow, a series from The Weather Channel; What Were You Thinking? and More Than Human, both produced by Lionsgate; and a new season of Inside the Actors Studio, featuring episodes with Al Pacino, Tom Hanks and Dustin Hoffman, among others.

“We’ve always done well in China, Korea, Singapore and Japan,” says Sabrina Sanchez-Ayala, the VP of sales and marketing at CABLEready, about the company’s business in Asia. “In the last year we’ve advanced quite a bit in Hong Kong, Thailand and the Philippines. Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam are certainly on the horizon for new opportunities.”

Documentaries also feature prominently for Poland’s Telewizja Polska, which has been rolling out Still Alive: Krzysztof Kieslowski, a film about the late Polish director. Telewizja Polska has organized a weeklong screening of Ki�slowski’s titles, including The Decalogue, Three Colors and The Double Life of Veronique, in Singapore beginning December 15.

According to Malgorzata Cup, the head of sales and acquisitions for Asia, Australia, Africa and South America at Telewizja Polska, the company will also be rolling out Secrets of the Vatican and Saga of an Ancient Forest.

Fremantle International Distribution, which has seen an improvement in its business since the establishment of a Singaporean office in 2005, is also highlighting factual and lifestyle fare. Korea, Indonesia and the Philippines have all shown gains this year, according to Ganesh Rajaram, the sales director for Asia at FID. The Singapore office has “really allowed us to be in touch with our clients 24/7, and that has allowed for a better understanding of their needs,” he explains.

Off the back of the success of the returning American Idol, Project Runway and The Apprentice—which have been renewed across Asia, Rajaram says—FID will be launching the new unscripted series The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency, American Inventor and the music show Live from Abbey Road. FID will also be looking to do further deals on the youth-skewing drama Falcon Beach and the event docudrama Prehistoric Park, which Rajaram says has been “tremendously successful, having been sold to most free-to-air broadcasters and also to a pan-regional [service] in Asia.”

FID, whose regional headquarters is in Sydney, is not the only international company that has ramped up its Asian operations of late. Granada International this year restructured its business in the region, appointing former Bloomberg Television executive James Ross to oversee a new office in Hong Kong. “Granada has had a business in Asia for many years,” says Ross, now the regional director for Asia at Granada International. “We’re well known by most of the major broadcasters and distributors, but we felt that we’d probably not spent enough time really focusing on Asia. In the past, we tended to have people fly out from the U.K. We took the decision to up the presence and put in an office in Asia, where we’re in the same time zone, we can speak to people, and we can understand the market. Every culture has different requirements. It’s so important to be able to understand what those are.”

At the ATF, factual and lifestyle will be a key focus, Ross says. Among the new documentaries on offer are I Shouldn’t Be Alive, Edge of Existence and the acclaimed series China Inside. Factual entertainment is also emerging as a trend says Ross, noting the success the company has had with Hell’s Kitchen, Gordon Ramsay’s reality series for FOX in the U.S. “It’s done well in Korea, and we’re talking to people in five or six other territories.”

As he develops his strategy for the region, Ross notes that Korea will continue to be a key market—“the prices are better there,” Ross says—and India is emerging as a new priority. “China is vastly important, but the prices are still low and the market is still fairly disorganized,” Ross observes. “We’re also keen to focus on places like Indonesia. The television world there is changing every day.”

Ross will also be working on the continued sales of Granada’s popular U.S. TV movies, which have performed well across the region. Furthermore, he notes, “on top of continuing to distribute what we already have, we’re also looking at the possibility of doing more co-productions in Asia and at distributing Asian material.”

BBC Worldwide is also attempting to localize its portfolio, recently announcing its first co-production deal in China. Wild China will be produced by the BBC’s Natural History Unit and China Television Media (CTV), the production arm of state broadcaster CCTV, and is due for delivery in March 2008.

Facts of Life

Linfield Ng, the senior TV sales manager at BBC Worldwide, says the company’s documentary business has been particularly strong in Korea, especially on big-budget titles like Planet Earth. “Korea and China are our top two markets,” says Ng, who is based in BBC Worldwide’s Hong Kong office. “Korea is our biggest market and China is definitely growing. On top of TV sales we’ll be spreading our wings into co-productions, new media like IPTV, mobile, VOD. We’re working closely with telco companies and cable companies to see how we can fit into their overall strategy based on the content we have.”

According to Ng, Korea has also become a hot market for British drama, with the strong success of Doctor Who. Ng is now talking to his clients about Robin Hood and Primeval.

The sale of Western scripted programming in Asia, however, remains an uphill challenge, especially in the wake of the continued success of Korean dramas region-wide. There have, however, been a number of success stories. Buena Vista International Television-Asia Pacific has sold Desperate Housewives to 18 broadcasters in 41 markets, and has done a number of deals on Lost and Grey’s Anatomy. Alliance Atlantis, meanwhile, has shored up agreements on the CSI franchise across Asia. “Our strategy within Asia is to continue to maximize the exposure of CSI through existing television opportunities and new-media opportunities,” says Sinclair.

Twentieth Century Fox Television Distribution was encouraged by its first outing to the ATF last year, says Brendan Zauner, the company’s VP for Asia. “The aim [last year] was to introduce the Fox brand to prospective clients and [make progress on] negotiations with existing clients in the core business of terrestrial free TV and basic cable and satellite,” Zauner says. “This year the objective is to build on the success of programs like 24, which moves into its sixth season; Prison Break, which is in its second season; The Unit; and Bones. Of the new programs launched at the L.A. Screenings in May, Shark has established itself early on as one of the frontrunners, and Standoff is gathering momentum.”

Zauner continues, “In the region the markets differ in their programming strategy when it comes to major studio content. The larger markets for feature films tend to be Korea, Indonesia, Taiwan, Japan and India, whereas Singapore, Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand tend to offer more of a balance across series and features. From a core business standpoint, we would like to be doing more in all markets. However, if looking at growth potential, we would like to be doing more in India and China.”

Sony Pictures Television International’s strategy in the region has involved offering a mix of Western content—including this year the comedies ’Til Death, Big Day and My Boys—and programming acquired from the region. “In addition to the strong demand for Hollywood blockbuster movies and hit series, the popularity of local Asian programming continues,” says Janet Eng, the director of licensing for Asia at SPTI. Highlights for the ATF include the Japanese mini-series Tokyo Friends, starring the pop artist Ai Otsuka, the Vietnamese feature film Long Legged Beauty and the Korean animation MaskMan.

LOCAL FLAVOR

To weather the fluctuations in Asian broadcasters’ appetite for Western dramas and comedies, several distributors are looking at selling scripted formats into the region. According to Steve Macallister, the senior VP and managing director of BVITV-AP, discussions are under way on catalogue titles like The Golden Girls—“it’s one of those shows that absolutely transcends cultures,” he says—and Home Improvement.

“I’d like to get into the market with drama, across Asia,” says Simon Spalding, the director of operations for the Asia Pacific at Fremantle-Media. “That’s the piece we’re not doing in the region, except for Australia.”

Exploring the potential market for scripted formats in Asia is part of Spalding’s overall reorganization of FremantleMedia’s production operations in the region. “I’ve spent the last 12 months reshaping the business and focusing it on those territories where we believe there’s a significant opportunity to not only sell our formats but ultimately to produce our own content,” Spalding says. “We’re working on some new business models, whether it be content for mobile or advertiser-funded programming. Historically, the company has taken a bit of a one-size-fits-all approach, and we’re trying to be more sensitive to the needs there. There are some increasingly big players and in a lot of markets the budgets are getting bigger. The need for global formats has been growing. We’re there for the long haul.”

While distributors are hoping to cash in on the potential of local drama, the format business in Asia currently is dominated by lifestyle, reality and variety fare. FremantleMedia is seeing an increased demand for its game shows, such as Let’s Make a Deal and Card Sharks, in competitive markets like Indonesia. Idols has been produced in a number of Asian markets, including India, Singapore and Indonesia. The next step for the talent-search show in the region is Japan, Spalding says.

Granada, too, wants to boost its format business in Asia, and Ross will be talking to his clients about variety shows like Dancing on Ice and the game shows Catchphrase and Countdown. “Indonesia is big on formats at the moment. India is getting big as well. There’s a lot of potential.”

According to BBC Worldwide’s Ng, discussions are under way with several broadcasters on Strictly Come Dancing, which has been enormously successful for numerous European broadcasters and for ABC in the U.S. “Where we see great opportunity is Indonesia, possibly Thailand and the Philippines,” Ng says.

Canada’s Distraction also wants to make some headway in the region, according to Michel Rodrigue, the company’s president and CEO. “We’ve made some interesting progress,” Rodrigue says. “We’re in discussions with an Asian agent and we sold Dirty Rotten Cheater in Japan. We’re moving slower than we expected but I think it’s better this way. The Asian market is a market where you have to build trust. That’s what we’re working on.”

At the ATF, Distraction will be showcasing a number of new titles, including Via Verdi, which has built-in television, broadband and mobile components, as well as Man Maid. Distraction is also aiming to build interest in Hollywood Connection, an entertainment news magazine. “It’s a modular concept,” Rodrigue says. “You can either take the whole program as it is with the host or you can replace her with a local host and pick the segments that fit your market. We are also looking for our [broadcast partners] to get back to us with segments that are of international interest that they’ve shot in their market. Say Leonardo DiCaprio is shooting a movie in Japan—the local crew does an interview and feeds it back to us so we can distribute it.”

EMERGING PLAYGROUNDS

Another area that is showing great promise for distributors is the kids’ business. “All across Asia, the digitization process in the television industry has resulted in the creation of various new children’s TV stations,” says Susanne Schosser, the managing director of EM.Entertainment, a longtime ATF attendee. “Thanks to the company’s extensive library, we are able to meet the increased demand with a broad range of high-quality content for branded or nonbranded blocks and even entire children’s TV channels.”

Recent deals for EM.Entertainment in the region include the Philippines’ GMA Network’s acquisition of Blinky Bill, Heidi and Poochini. EM.Entertainment is also exploring new-media opportunities, recently concluding a video-on-demand deal on titles like Maya the Bee and Sinbad the Sailor with Power International Multimedia in China. “Demand from national and international media companies for formats that are also suitable for distribution channels in the interactive sector—with an emphasis on mobile content, games, video on demand and IPTV—will certainly [increase] during the years to come,” Schosser says.

On offer at the ATF will be Master Raindrop, a 2-D/3-D animated action-adventure series from Singapore’s Big Communications, New Zealand’s Flux Animation Studio and Australia’s Flying Bark Productions (formerly Yoram Gross-EM.TV). Other key titles include the science-fiction comedy Dogstar and the 26×24-minute comedy Staines Down Drains.

BBC Worldwide is also faring well with its kids’ properties, talking to broadcasters about Charlie and Lola, Secret Show and In the Night Garden, the upcoming series from Ragdoll, the producers of Teletubbies.

For Telewizja Polska, the ATF will be an opportunity to showcase to Asian buyers the kids’ live-action series The Magic Tree and the preschool animation Fantazy the Bear.

Alliance Atlantis is finding interest from the region for its new preschool series Lunar Jim, which Sinclair says “is gaining huge momentum not only for the excellent production values but the strong educational components of the show. The series promotes the development of inquiry skills with the young audience and we have found that these educational components are very important to broadcasters.”

Beyond Distribution is showcasing three children’s series at the ATF: Numberjacks, Milly, Molly and Amazing Extraordinary Friends. “Numberjacks has proved very popular because it tackles the subject of numeracy for preschoolers in a fun and involving way,” Johnson says. “The Milly, Molly series of books has already had great success in Asia.” Amazing Extraordinary Friends, meanwhile, is a live-action tween series. “Comedy is always a winner and live action is really in demand at the moment in Asia,” Johnson notes.

Johnson is hoping to do as well with these titles as the company did with the kids’ factual series Backyard Science and the preschool property New MacDonald’s Farm. “Both have been hugely successful for us in Asia and buyers have snapped up new series as soon as they have become available,” she says.

PorchLight Entertainment is also focusing on the kids’ and family market, offering animated features such as Holidaze, a package of six DVD and TV specials; the trilogy Treasure Island Kids; the 52×30-minute live-action Jetix series Monster Warriors; and the 26×24-minute animated comedy My Goldfish Is Evil! “We have many family and children’s movies with high production values that don’t face censorship problems,” says Katherine Kaufman, the VP of worldwide sales at PorchLight.

Kaufman notes that the company’s strongest market in the region so far has been China, and PorchLight has also built a solid business with the pan-regional broadcasters. Looking ahead, Kaufman is eyeing new-media opportunities. “We have done deals for mobile rights on the animated shorts Doodlez and we hope to do the same with a new series of shorts called Leon. We have also done deals for mobile-gaming rights based on Tutenstein. We see a lot of demand for U.S. programming [from IPTV platforms], and we’re looking into how we can incorporate these rights into our distribution model.”

NEW MODELS

New media is on most distributors’ agendas. “The enquiry rate regarding access to content for IPTV and broadband TV is encouraging,” says Fox’s Zauner.

BVITV has taken a leading role, most recently announcing a mobile-content deal in the Philippines with ABS-CBS Interactive for sneak peeks and behind-the-scenes clips from Desperate Housewives and Grey’s Anatomy. BVITV also concluded a pay-per-view and VOD deal with CGV Choice in Korea for a slate of Disney, Touchstone and Miramax features.

In June, BBC Worldwide signed its first IPTV video-on-demand deal in Korea, entering into an agreement with the telecommunications company Hanarotelecom to supply more than 120 hours of kids’, lifestyle and factual content to the Hanaromedia platform.

Alliance Atlantis has begun rolling out mobisodes from its hit tween/teen series Degrassi: The Next Generation, and Sinclair says the company is now eyeing VOD options for the CSI franchise.

E! Networks, meanwhile, is heavily promoting its E! Everywhere initiative, which was launched internationally at MIPCOM. The company-wide mandate sees E! extending its core brands across every platform possible, from free TV and cable and satellite exposure to broadband streaming, mobile clips, DVDs and other merchandise. “We’re in a lot of different spaces,” Fellowes says. “Each component is rubbing off on the others. It creates a real sense that the brand is out there. We’ve got programming in all these other formats. There are so many [new-media] platforms that are taking off in Asia. People are subscribing to this stuff and we’re starting to make money out of it.”