Fans of the new NBC offering 30 Rock, currently airing across Asia on STAR World, would doubtlessly have enjoyed the debut episode’s arrival of GE hot-shot Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin). “I’m the new Vice President in charge of East Coast Television and Microwave Oven Programming,” he smugly announces. “That sounds like you programme microwaves,” retorts Liz Lemon (Tina Fey). But despite Donaghy’s apparent lack of relevant experience to segue from GE’s electrical division to the glamourous world of TV, ironically his ‘tri-vector oven’ approach seems to work. And now into its second decade in the region, Asia’s international pay-TV operations have been relatively close-knit. It’s probably fair to say that new appointments from ‘outside’ of TV’s inner circle were, in the past, viewed with a certain amount of suspicion – akin to Liz Lemon’s obvious misgivings about Jack Donaghy. But with other technologies now begging the question ‘when’ rather than ‘if’ they will offer real revenues, TV is having to think outside the (goggle) box in terms of both distribution opportunities and fulfilling its recruitment needs.