Video Interview: Paul Presburger

NEW YORK, May 27: Tiger Gate Entertainment has ambitious plans for its channels KIX and Thrill in Asia. In this video interview, Paul Presburger talks expansion, local production and more.

A recent report indicated that half of the world’s pay-TV subscribers are in Asia as of this year. Factor in the huge pockets of still untapped cable- and satellite-TV potential in territories across the region and you have a very compelling argument for targeting the Asian media sector. One of the newer entrants is Tiger Gate Entertainment, formed in 2008 by William Pfeiffer and Paul Presburger with the backing of Lionsgate. Earlier this year, the venture secured a new partner, Saban Capital Group.

With the added expertise and financial resources of its new co-owner, Tiger Gate is looking to rapidly expand across Asia with its current portfolio: the Asian action service KIX and the horror/thriller offering Thrill. The channels are already available in Indonesia, Hong Kong and Singapore, with a host of target markets eyed over the next six to nine months. Presburger concedes that the channel landscape in Asia today is extremely crowded, but he notes that Tiger Gate is delivering to platforms two compelling, unique services, and he cites the wealth of experience that is driving the company’s strategy.

Pfeiffer, Tiger Gate’s CEO, previously founded and ran Celestial Pictures, which produces and distributes content and operates channels in Asia. Prior to that, he ran the Asian business at Sony Pictures Entertainment, where he helped launch AXN, among other channels, across the region. Presburger, most recently executive VP of international business development at Lionsgate, is also a former Sony exec, serving on the team that was rolling AXN and Animax out across Europe, Asia and Latin America. With the expertise of its management team and its joint-venture partners, Tiger Gate is keen to be a major new player in the Asian pay landscape—and expansion into other territories is certainly on the cards, Presburger notes.