Rob Gilby

World Screen Weekly, August 14, 2008

Senior VP and Managing Director

Disney-ABC International Television Asia Pacific

In the last two months, Disney-ABC International Television (DAIT) Asia Pacific has made several significant new-media deals in the region. In Hong Kong, DAIT has inked an agreement that allows leading terrestrial TVB to offer free access to ABC Studios shows like Lost, Desperate Housewives and Brothers & Sisters on its website, 12 hours after the on-air broadcast. In Singapore, meanwhile, DAIT built on its existing relationship with SingTel’s IPTV platform mioTV to deliver, on an SVOD basis, top American shows as early as 24 hours after their American premiere. And in Australia, users can purchase and download several live-action series from iTunes.

The alliances, joining existing deals with the likes of HanaTV and Mega TV in Korea, TVNZ in New Zealand and Chunghwa Telecom in Taiwan, reflect the company’s desire to tap into all the opportunities presented by new media in the region. “The new technologies, the new platforms, really have emerged and have started targeting customers backed with investments in programming and marketing,” says Rob Gilby, who was named to oversee Disney’s program and channel distribution efforts across the Asia Pacific earlier this year. “We’re finding that the free-TV broadcasters are asking us, how can we partner in an online environment?”

While Gilby is relatively new to DAIT, he is not new to The Walt Disney Company, nor to the region itself. The managing director of Disney Channel for the U.K., Scandinavia and emerging markets for the last two years, Gilby previously spent six years with Turner Broadcasting System Asia Pacific, after beginning his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Hong Kong.

Gilby’s experience in Asia is expected to serve him well as he devises a strategy to build the company’s business in several growth markets in the region, notably India and Korea. “I’m still a big fan of China and the Greater China phenomenon, but that’s very much a case of pursuing it step by step and working within the existing framework,” Gilby notes. “India is growing so quickly. All the emerging platforms are looking for high-quality content. There’s been an explosion in the number of new channels in India and for us that’s a great opportunity. Korea is also very interesting from a technology perspective. We have great platform partners. It has some challenges but it’s incredibly dynamic from a new-media perspective.”

Beyond growth markets and new media, Gilby is also placing an emphasis on format sales on the company’s library, following the strong success of The Amazing Race Asia on AXN Asia. Noting the success of Latin American versions of Desperate Housewives, Gilby says that opportunities exist for some of the company’s hit series to be reversioned by local broadcasters. “We certainly have embraced the idea of wanting to do more local content production. It’s something we’ll continue to look at.”

While Gilby oversaw a number of diverse territories while stationed at Disney Channel in Europe, he was thrilled to return to the complexities presented by the varying markets in the Asia Pacific. “This particular region has such an energy and so much growth potential. It’s a region of different markets. Every time I go to a new country, I’m always learning.”

—By Mansha Daswani