AZN Television

World Screen Weekly, February 15, 2007

COUNTRY: U.S.

LAUNCH DATE: March 2005

NUMBER OF SUBSCRIBERS: 15 million subscribers in the U.S.

OWNERSHIP: AZN is a service of International Networks, which is the wholly owned subsidiary of Comcast Corporation that also distributes in the U.S. 16 premium in-language cable TV channels from around the world.

DESCRIPTION: AZN Television evolved from the International Channel and is targeted towards the affluent and multi-generational Asian American community living in the U.S., 85 percent of whom are fluent in English. It is the only Asian American television network with distribution in all of the top 25 Asian DMAs in the U.S. The network attempts to aggregate a multi-ethnic audience in the 18-49 demographic through English-accessible programming—all programming is either in English or subtitled in English, with the exception of the channel’s broadcasts of in-language news direct from countries across Asia.

GENERAL MANAGER: Rod Shanks

SENIOR VP, NETWORK DEVELOPMENT,

INTERNATIONAL NETWORKS: Scott Wheeler

SENIOR VP, AFFILIATE & ADVERTISING SALES: Bill Georges

PROGRAMMING MANAGER: Alison Keenan

PROGRAMMING STRATEGY: Acquisitions still form the majority of AZN’s programming, which account for about 70 to 80 percent of the channel’s schedule. The big draw continues to be dramas—be they in Mandarin, Cantonese or Korean. Korean titles in particular comprise a big part of its prime-time block, with Jumong, a hit for MBC Korea, slated to launch February 20. The Chinese drama Handsome Siblings, with pop star Nicholas Tse, and the Taiwanese title Mars, starring Vic Chou and Barbi Xu, both premiered in early January. “We’re really tapping into some of these Taiwanese dramas,” says Alison Keenan, the programming manager at AZN Television. “The actors are popular throughout Asia, not just specifically Taiwan.”

The bulk of the daytime programming consists of dramas and fresh in-language news feeds that come from all over Asia, including China, Japan and the Philippines.

Movies are also an important part of AZN’s programming slate, with a number of films premiering this year from a 2005 output deal with Sony Pictures Television. This year, AZN has access to 11 titles from that deal, including the Korean movie Tae Guk Gi: Brotherhood of War, Saving Face, and two movies featuring Gong Li: Zhou Yu’s Train and The Emperor and the Assassin.

According to Keenan, the network does not go for a specific movie genre like drama or comedy, but looks to acquire a diverse array of established hits. "We keep our eye out for the things that are award-winning, [with] directors or actors [that] are well-known and will resonate with our audience. We’re ultimately looking for the best content in Asia to bring here.”

In terms of original series, NBA Timeout, a weekly magazine-style show that puts a multicultural spin on the NBA, has done very well for the network, with the second season premiering February 25 from the NBA All-Star game in Las Vegas. The series resulted from a partnership that AZN reached with the NBA in 2005 to produce a range of programming targeted at Asian-American basketball fans. Another original production that has been well received is The Asian Excellence Awards, which debuted last year and is the only awards show on television that recognizes the achievements of Asians and Asian Americans. This year, the show will air in May on AZN during Asia-Pacific Heritage month.

Anime is also a popular genre for AZN and the network has two new 30-minute shorts scheduled to premiere in August: Kakurenbo: Hide and Seek and Negadon: Monster from Mars. “They use a lot of new computer graphic technology [and] visually they’re stunning,” says Keenan. Kakurenbo is a short “horror-type” film that revolves around a game called Kakurenbo that kids play in the middle of the night. Negadon: Monster from Mars falls into the “kaiju” category, which is a genre of monster, Godzilla-type movies from Japan.

WHAT’S NEW: The network is currently focusing its energies on its online media player at AZN.com. Keenan acknowledges that AZN’s target audience, Asian-Americans, are often very “tech-savvy.” Right now, there is a plethora of behind-the-scenes content for the network’s anime, movies, and trailers that are available on the media player. “We’ve gotten a tremendous response from that,” says Keenan. “We’ve been premiering some of the shows on the web before they even go to the linear channels. For [the viewers], it drums up some excitement for the show.”

Keenan notes that AZN is also looking to expand the content that will be available online, such as offering a series in its original language on the media player and airing the English-language version on television.

WEBSITE: www.azntv.com

—By Irene Lew