Asia in Focus

December 2007

Asia has suddenly become a force to be reckoned with in the international television industry. Certainly, compared to ten years ago, when the Asian economies came crashing down as if in a cruel game of financial dominoes, media markets across the region today are booming.

While program sales to traditional broadcast-television outlets still remain a core part of their agenda, many distributors attending this year’s Asia Television Forum (ATF) in Singapore are also eager to do a range of business in Asia that includes striking new-media deals and forging alliances with local producers and distributors.

Media companies have also been busy launching new services across the region. BBC Worldwide began rolling out a group of branded thematic channels this year: BBC Knowledge and BBC Lifestyle launched in Singapore in July, and also debuted on the IPTV platform Now TV in Hong Kong in October.

The History Channel and the Crime & Investigation Network launched in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong as the result of a joint venture of A&E Television Networks and Astro All Asia Networks.

The newly launched Comcast International Media Group (CIMG), formerly known as E! Networks, is one of those companies that will pursue an aggressive multiplatform strategy at the ATF this year. “We will experience growth of around 30 percent in the pay-TV business this year, with the growth of digital distribution and ad sales, and the launch of new markets and platforms,” notes Christine Fellowes, the managing director for the Asia Pacific at CIMG, who expects growth to be even more robust next year.

CIMG has also been focusing on introducing its branded thematic channels in the region. The Golf Channel has already launched, with local partnerships in Japan, Korea, China, Malaysia, and further distribution in Singapore and Hong Kong. The Style Network is scheduled to launch in the Asia-Pacific region in early 2008. At ATF, CIMG will also be marketing its branded broadband mini-site on ninemsn.com, the largest web portal in Australia. The whole entertainment area on the site is branded as E! Online, which will feature celebrity and entertainment news and E! shows such as E! News, Fashion Police, Planet Gossip and segments from the popular reality series Girls of the Playboy Mansion.

BBC Worldwide is also focusing its efforts on digital media, aggressively extending its programming across a multitude of platforms. “Digital media is very exciting for us,” says Linfield Ng, the senior TV sales manager for Asia at BBC Worldwide. “We’re concentrating a lot on VOD and mobile right now.”

This past February, BBC Worldwide became one of the first British distributors to provide entertainment content to an Asian mobile television broadcaster’s S-DMB (satellite digital multimedia broadcasting) service. Under this deal, TU Media customers in Korea can now watch 39 hours of programming from the British motoring show Top Gear through devices in their cars or gadgets such as mobile phones and laptop computers. In Korea, BBC Worldwide has signed deals with two of the region’s largest IPTV video-on-demand providers, KT and HanaroTelecom. BBC Worldwide has licensed more than 130 hours of content to KT, including the titles Blue Planet, Pride and Prejudice and Bleak House.

Disney-ABC International Television also has an eye on digital distribution. In fact, Greg Johnson, the VP of sales at Disney-ABC International Television Asia Pacific, notes that digital media forms “one of the three core pillars of growth for The Walt Disney Company,” but cautions that new-media deals must be evaluated on a market-by-market basis and tailored for those specific territories. “When you’re looking at the rollout of different services, a market like Korea is [very] advanced in the capabilities that they have from the digital market compared to Vietnam, for instance,” explains Johnson. “We really need to structure any deals that we’re looking at across the region based on the realities of the market now and where we want to be in the future. We’re able to provide content to [consumers] wherever they want it, however they want.”

CONTENT IS KING

The success of the many new distribution platforms and channels that are popping up throughout Asia depends on one main element: compelling programming. And distributors at the ATF this year are positioning themselves to catch the attention of buyers with new titles in a variety of genres.

At MIPCOM, CIMG announced that it had secured a raft of broadcast deals across the Asia Pacific, totaling more than 1,240 hours of entertainment and lifestyle-themed programming. The company will follow that success with a slate of new American reality programming at ATF, led by the new E! series Snoop Dogg’s Father Hood, following the everyday life of the hip-hop recording artist, producer and actor Snoop Dogg and his family, which is set to roll out in early 2008. Other highlights include Keeping Up with the Kardashians, following the antics of the dysfunctional Kardashian family, which launched in November on E! Entertainment’s Australia and New Zealand feed and will bow in December on E!’s Asian channel.

Fellowes explains that the success of CIMG’s programming in the region is due to “interest in foreign brands, in international trends and in lifestyle trends, [which] continues to build, and has really [become] unstoppable.”

One big trend among tweens everywhere has been the megahit movie High School Musical. Disney-ABC International Television has high hopes for its sequel, High School Musical 2, which has already taken the U.S. and Europe by storm. The TV movie has started rolling out on free TV in New Zealand and Australia and will continue across Asia at the beginning of next year.

On the heels of the success of the ABC hospital drama Grey’s Anatomy in Asia, Disney-ABC International Television’s Johnson is betting that its spin-off, Private Practice, will also do well across the region. “There are a lot of expectations for that show, and we’re really looking forward to presenting it to Asian audiences,” he says.

Johnson is also optimistic about other new series, like the ABC drama Dirty Sexy Money, the mid-season replacement Eli Stone and the CW series Reaper, noting that they “have the potential to travel in Asia Pacific.”

MarVista Entertainment is returning to the ATF this year with high hopes for doing more business in Asia. CEO Fernando Szew explains that while the company had a “good experience last year,” it is “more prepared” this time around with a “much bigger and better” catalogue that includes the prime-time teen drama series Beyond the Break, which has been licensed to STAR World and to the distributor Twin Co. in Japan.

While Szew acknowledges that Japan is the Asian market that pays the highest license fees, it is still “a very selective market and a tough [one] to crack.” Szew has discovered that MarVista has fared better in Asia with cross-regional deals with STAR and HBO Asia. A range of movies have sold to STAR Movies, including Absolute Zero, Running with the Hitman, Disaster Zone: Volcano in New York, produced for the SCI FI Channel in the U.S., and movies made for Lifetime, such as Night of Terror, Love Thy Neighbor, Past Sins and Cries in the Dark.

Another strong market in Asia is Korea. While James Ross, the regional director for Asia at Granada International, notes that “different countries are progressing at different rates,” Korea is currently experiencing a boom with channels proliferating across cable, satellite, IPTV and VOD platforms. He is more cautious, however, about the Chinese market, adding that while “China has hundreds of channels,” finding the right content to fit them and making sure that it’s content that passes local regulations, is still an issue.

Granada will be offering buyers at the ATF a wide variety of product in all genres, including the new drama My Boy Jack, which highlights the tale of Rudyard Kipling’s son Jack and his efforts to join the army during World War I despite having poor eyesight. Ross notes that with its launch at MIPCOM, My Boy Jack has already drawn interest from buyers in the region, thanks to a star cast that includes Harry Potter’s Daniel Radcliffe and Sex and the City’s Kim Cattrall. Ross contends that Asia is a good market for quality drama. “We’ve seen a growing appetite for British and European dramas, as well as American drama,” says Ross. “In the last few years, there hasn’t actually been much exposure in Asia for some of [this product]. We’re finding that now that we have our office in Hong Kong, broadcasters are interested in learning more about [European and British dramas].”

BBC Worldwide’s Ng agrees that British dramas are gaining popularity in the region. “We see an explosion of U.K. drama in Asia because Hong Kong is starting to buy drama series,” says Ng. “Korea is also buying more dramas from us. In fact, the viewership for [our dramas] is higher in Korea than for CSI. We see more people looking into our dramas, [which was] a whole different story about two years ago.”

Ng notes that for a long time, “Thailand did not buy any drama,” but that has changed, with Channel 7 picking up the first season of Robin Hood and the second and third seasons of Doctor Who, after a successful run with the first season of Doctor Who.

BBC Worldwide is offering a bevy of new dramas this year, including Mistresses, which was produced by Ecosse Films for BBC One, and revolves around the lives of four women and their involvement in an array of illicit and complex relationships. Also available to buyers at the market is the new drama The Sarah Jane Adventures, from the producers behind Doctor Who.

Ganesh Rajaram, the VP of sales for Asia at FremantleMedia Enterprises (FME), is finding India to be a fairly strong market. While mainstream shows in India tend to end up on general-entertainment channels, Rajaram has noticed that there are also “many new networks setting up who are catering to a smaller audience,” which provides opportunities for FME to exploit a large portion of its catalogue titles. “You may have STAR World taking all of your top-rated prime-time reality shows and dramas, but there are a plethora of other channels and they are going more and more niche,” acknowledges Rajaram.

Rajaram has discovered that broadcasters in Asia are placing lifestyle shows in non-prime-time slots. He is particularly pleased about the culinary series Kylie Kwong: My China, co-produced by Sitting in Pictures, FME and the Media Development Authority of Singapore. The series documents chef Kylie Kwong’s culinary and cultural journey in search of the heart, soul and taste buds of the Chinese people.

He hopes that this will lead to more opportunities for local productions and alliances. “We want to do more of that and it’s part of my mandate. I am constantly in talks with producers in the region to see how we can create more brands like Kylie Kwong and bring them to the international marketplace.”

LOOKING FOR PARTNERSHIPS

BBC Worldwide is also actively seeking co-production partners and opportunities in Asia. The company recently acquired a 25-percent stake in the Australian independent production company the Freehand Group, and has also opened a new production outfit in India.

In December 2006, BBC Worldwide announced its first co-production in China. Wild China, a six-part natural-history series, is a partnership of the BBC’s Natural History Unit and China Television Media (CTV), the production arm of the Chinese state broadcaster CCTV. The series will debut in March 2008, ahead of the Beijing Olympics. It takes viewers on a journey through the diverse landscapes of China, including the ancient Han kingdom, the Mongol steppes, the Silk Road and the Tibetan Plateau. Wild China “is one of our biggest key titles,” notes Ng. “It’s such a rare opportunity—we got a lot of exclusive footage that not a lot of people have seen.”

The U.K.-based producer and distributor Power is also looking to raise its profile in Asia this year with the recent appointment of George Sakkalli as its new VP of sales and distribution for Asia, marking the first time that the company has had a dedicated sales executive for the region. Sakkalli has a “threefold” strategy for tackling the region: “One is to show some of the fantastic new productions and catalogue titles for Asia. Power hasn’t had an Asian presence before, and that’s why I was taken aboard. In addition to launching these productions, [my goal is] to promote the Power brand and the high production values that we have, and, thirdly, to forge some local alliances in production and distribution, put on my co-production hat and also my representation [hat for] third-party independent productions, and develop that locally for Asia.”

At ATF, Power will showcase a variety of big-budget TV movies and mini-series, such as Robinson Crusoe, a prime-time series commissioned by NBC and based on the classic Daniel Defoe novel, along with other big-budget offerings such as The Summit, a mini-series centered around the pharmaceuticals business. Also available to Asian buyers are Lethal Obsession and Voices from the slate of female-centered Power Thrillers, as well as two long-running CBS soaps, Guiding Light and As the World Turns.

Sakkalli is also looking to “develop alliances in reality and factual entertainment,” expanding beyond the company’s foundation in drama. On the third-party distribution front, Sakkalli is also keen on “taking on productions from independent local producers, not only across Asia,” but also possibly “taking good Asian product to other territories.”

SevenOne International also heads to ATF with a slew of big-event movies and mini-series such as Tornado, Treasure Island and Comet Impact. Additionally, the distributor will look to do more deals on its “science-tainment” show Clever! The German ready-made version has already sold to CCTV in China and to Channel 9 in Thailand. “Asian buyers used to be more focused on documentaries only, but now they also want entertainment combined with science,” notes Jens Richter, the managing director of SevenOne International. “One client told me Clever! is entertainment with a purpose. That was very good, because ‘science-tainment’ sounds really dry, but ‘entertainment with a purpose’ is a very good line—the show is entertainment; it’s not a science magazine at all.”

REAL-WORLD APPEAL

AETN International will also have a fair share of science-focused factual entertainment series this year, including The Universe, which covers space exploration, and Cities of the Underworld, centered on engineering and the process of building up the layers beneath major cities around the world. “While most of the engineering content in the marketplace always talks about what we see above ground, this one actually takes another perspective, and looks at what is underground,” explains Ling Sze Gan, the content sales executive for Asia at AETN International.

Another AETN International show receiving top billing at the ATF is the “real-life” series Ice Road Truckers, with the season finale on The History Channel in the U.S. ranking as the telecast with the highest-ever rating on the network. “There’s a lot of drama; it’s very emotional [and] very gripping,” notes Gan. “At MIPCOM, [we had] a lot of interested clients who were asking for screeners.”

According to Gan, buyers in Asia who are seeking programming in the factual genre are looking beyond the classic documentaries. “These days, in order to be successful in the realm of factual, you really have to be entertaining at the same time, which is why AETN focuses on the entertainment base. Sometimes it’s driven by CGI, sometimes it’s driven by strong scriptwriting, or even a personality that is in the show. I think all of those are important.”

For instance, AETN will serve up reality-entertainment content like Confessions of a Matchmaker, which follows the matchmaker Patti Novak as she helps singles in Buffalo, New York, with her no-nonsense style of love. The series is also available as a format. “I think this whole thing with dating and matchmaking is becoming a global obsession,” says Gan.

Telewizja Polska has seen a spike in interest from Asian clients for Polish content. “Polish documentaries are becoming more and more successful in Asia,” says Malgorzata Cup, the head of sales and acquisitions for Asia, Australia, Africa and South America at the company.

A priority for Telewizja Polska at ATF will be to market Katyn, a film that chronicles the story behind thousands of Polish officers who were shot by the Soviet authorities in the spring of 1940 in the Katyn forest.

Cup believes that the title will do well in Asia, as the well-known Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki, who composed the music for the opening ceremony for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, was also involved with the film. Additionally, Cup hopes to secure more deals in Asia for the animated Classical Music Videoclips, which has already been sold into more than 50 territories, including Taiwan.

Factual and reality entertainment will form a large part of Granada International’s slate for the ATF this year. According to Ross, the latest season of the culinary reality-competition series Hell’s Kitchen has been “extremely popular across Asia in the last year or so.” In a twist on the popular dancing format, Granada will also unveil Baby Ballroom, a reality-competition series that features 14 pairs of dancers.

The May Lee Show, a weekly talk show for women across Asia hosted by the journalist and broadcaster May Lee, is another program that has done well in the region. It premiered on STAR World and Granada is offering it across Asia.

There is no doubt that with the proliferation of channels, the growing numbers of new-media platforms and the healthy appetite for programming across many outlets, Asian media markets are more buoyant than they have been in years. And this bodes well for distributors doing business in the region, the channels buying the product and viewers who are being exposed to a wide variety of programming from around the world.