iaTV

World Screen Weekly, July 24, 2008

COUNTRY: U.S.

LAUNCH DATE: The channel launched as ImaginAsian on August 30, 2004. On August 1, 2008, it is rebranding as iaTV.

OWNERSHIP: ImaginAsian Entertainment

DISTRIBUTION: Five million subscribers on cable as of July 2008, reaching 65 percent of the Asian American population, including in the key cities of Los Angeles and New York.

DESCRIPTION: The network is the only 24/7 U.S. destination for fans of Asian pop culture, with entertainment programming such as original comedy, reality, anime and mixed marital arts programs as well as movies.

SENIOR MANAGEMENT:

Chairman & CEO, ImaginAsian Entertainment: Augustine Hong

President, IA Media: Adam Ware

Senior VP, Programming, IA Media: David Chu

VP, Creative & Executive Producer: Jimbo Matison

PROGRAMMING STRATEGY: Rather than targeting Asian Americans with in-language non-English programming with imported content from their native countries, iaTV opted to serve English-speaking viewers with entertainment offerings that are geared for those interested in Asian pop culture.

“To me, the opportunity has always been about not so much targeting an Asian American population, but more targeting an American cultural phenomenon, which is Asian pop culture,” explains Adam Ware, the president of IA Media, a division of ImaginAsian Entertainment that includes the company’s television, radio and digital media properties. “Asian pop culture in America is uniquely different than the culture you’d find in Japan or Korea or China,” he explains, “they all have their own elements of pop culture. When they come here, it becomes this Asian American pop culture�more about a certain creativity that’s fueled by a certain ethnicity.”

Ware explains that there has been a “cultural shift that saw Asian pop culture going mainstream,” citing examples such as Wipeout and I Survived a Japanese Game Show, both of which debuted on ABC this summer to great numbers, along with blockbusters like Kung Fu Panda. While competitors such as Adult Swim, MTV, BET and G4, among others, were periodically addressing this pop-culture trend, “none of those brands have the ability to devote themselves 100 percent of the time to Asian pop culture,” explains Ware. “They’ve already devoted themselves to their mission, and that allows us to be different and take that alternative position, and really sort of complement them.”

So iaTV “put together a schedule that really focuses on prime time,” which it outlines as Monday through Friday 7 p.m. to midnight. The counter-programming strategy breaks down the schedule night by night, focused on what the network “can offer as an alternative” for viewers of other channels.

On Mondays, iaTV features movies and documentaries that catch “the more serious side of Asian pop culture.” Good Movie Night features films such as Korea’s hit comedy Marrying the Mafia and action thriller 2009 Lost Memories, Alice Wu’s romantic comedy Saving Face and Ang Lee’s classic The Wedding Banquet. iaTV also secured agreements for films from some of Hollywood’s leading studios, including MGM and Sony Pictures Television.

Tuesdays, martial arts dominate the lineup with Chix Kix Flix, highlighting a new kung fu movie every week that features beautiful women kicking butt, which Ware describes as “Maxim meets Bruce Lee,” and Pancrase: Legends of Mixed Martial Arts, which features classic fights from some of today’s top MMA stars. For Wednesday nights, iaTV has a deal in place with Bandai that includes a library of popular anime series such as Mai Hime and Ghost Slayers Ayashi, alongside live-action titles like The Great Horror Family and Bloodhound.

The network is positioning its range of original content on Thursdays, which Ware says, if done correctly, “is the type of stuff that I would want to export, because the Asian American pop-culture take is a unique [one].” These include Comedy Zen, which showcases multi-ethnic comedians in half-hour standup sets; Uncle Morty’s Dub Shack, a half-hour comedy about four guys who dub movies however they want; and The Popper, which covers the worldwide Asian pop-culture phenomenon “in the same way that the The Soup [on E!] talks about the entertainment industry.”

The week caps off with Retrofade Friday, a movie block featuring cult classics and vintage hits, surrounded by two acquired shows: Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot and Banzai. From RDF Media Group, Banzai is “the In Living Color of Japanese game shows,” describes Ware. Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot, from MGM, is a 1960s live-action series that centers on a boy who controls a powerful robot.

WHAT’S NEW: The channel is in the process of rebranding, getting a new logo and changing its name from ImaginAsian TV to the more succinct iaTV. With its newly narrowed focus, the channel has already stocked its fall schedule, and has a new raft of titles it picked up for midseason. The upcoming programming block Docs Imported will explore Asia with documentaries such as Tokyo Gigolos and The Ancient Tea Road. Also coming to iaTV midseason are the reality-competition series I Am a Model and Eye for a Guy. iaRadio will launch later in the year as well. The half-hour music program features what’s hot in music videos and Asian American artists, featuring everything from K-pop and J-pop artists to Bollywood beats.

WEBSITE: www.iatv.tv

—By Kristin Brzoznowski