The Week at ATF

Asia TV Forum wrapped in Singapore last week with its largest edition ever, attracting more than 5,600 delegates from 58 countries, with almost 770 exhibiting companies on site.

“Asia continues to garner more eyeballs not only being a global growth leader in media and entertainment industry but also for the myriad of content, talents and untapped potential,” said Yeow Hui Leng, group project director of ATF and ScreenSingapore. “ATF will be celebrating our 20th year anniversary next year. We believe not just in presenting the best content, but also in being the best platform where delegates can gain the freshest insights and seal lasting partnerships to navigate the dynamic entertainment content landscape.”

Organizers Reed Exhibitions said that preliminary estimates put the total value of deals brokered at more than US$313 million.

Business was brisk across a broad range of genres. On the drama front, Fremantle announced a deal with iQiyi for My Brilliant Friend. all3media international announced its first scripted deal with ViuTV, licensing 100 hours of drama to the operator for the ViuTVsix channel. The channel also took three RED Production Company dramas from STUDIOCANAL. Sky Vision revealed that Patrick Melrose, which stars Benedict Cumberbatch, has been licensed in China, Hong Kong, India, Korea, Malaysia and Singapore, and is airing on iQiyi in China, BBC Player in Asia, BBC First in Asia, Hotstar premium in India and CJ in Korea. Asian drama was also in the spotlight, as Netflix took Astro’s first original drama series from Hong Kong, Demon’s Path, and Singapore’s Mediacorp and Taiwan’s Eightgeman unveiled All Is Well. FOX Networks Group (FNG) Asia and its flagship Chinese movies channel, SCM, are planning to invest in and co-produce four feature films developed by mm2 Entertainment. Thailand’s JKN Global Media entered into a pact with IndiaCast Media Distribution to bring a raft of Indian content to a new channel on its OTT platform, Bflix.

A wealth of kids’ content distributors were on site, including Cyber Group Studios, which reached new agreements with Sun TV Network to bring three of its animated series to India and Sri Lanka. India’s Green Gold Animation sealed an alliance with TV Asahi and its animation production arm, Shin-ei Animation, for new episodes of Ninja Hattori. Jetpack Distribution signed new deals that included selling seasons one to three of Outfit 7’s Talking Tom & Friends to Boomerang and POGO.

The range of format deals was significant. In the scripted space, a Chinese version of Twentieth Century Fox’s How I Met Your Mother is in the works, as is a Thai version of Nippon TV’s Abandoned. On the entertainment side, Idols is returning to the Philippines, this time on ABS-CBN in 2019. The Voice is also on the move, with Star India scoring a multiseason, multiyear deal with Talpa that includes the flagship talent format and The Voice Kids. Nippon TV’s long-running nonscripted hit Old Enough! is being remade for Singapore. Singerella, a prime-time factual-entertainment format from Armoza Formats, is set to be adapted in Thailand. GoQuest Digital Studios acquired the Twofour Rights format What Would Your Kid Do? for India

Factual deals were also abundant last week, including iflix taking Passion Distribution’s Cold Justice and Dynamo: Magician Impossible, and Gusto Worldwide Media selling its baking series Flour Power to South Korea’s UMAX. In addition, all3media international secured a range of factual-entertainment deals.

In addition to deal-making on the show floor, ATF included a raft of panel discussions and keynotes. On the day preceding the market, billed as the “Leader’ Summit,” highlights included Yang Xianghua, senior VP of Chinese streaming giant iQiyi, discussing the platform’s needs for a diversified content slate, and Turner’s Ricky Ow and HBO Asia’s Jonathan Spink on adapting to a changing market. Later in the week, executives from Inter Medya, Acun Medya Global, Mavi Baykuş Prodüksiyon and Videomite took part in a panel about the global success of Turkish content.

The event also served as a platform to discover new talent, with pitches for Chinese content, formats and animation, and the unveiling of new talent-development schemes by Singapore’s Info-communications Media Development Authority (IMDA).