Cannes – FremantleMedia’s alliance with TV Man Union, Inc., one of Japan’s largest independent production companies, signals the company’s intention to establish similar in-market collaborations in the Asia Pacific region. According to FremantleMedia’s director of operations Asia Pacific Simon Spalding, Japan is among four of the company’s priority territories in the region, alongside India, Indonesia and China. “This is our first collaboration of this kind in the region, (one) can expect many more in these four key territories,” he told Television Asia Plus. Spalding said the company has spent 18 months doing its homework, market by market, with broad research into every country and a deep dive into seven of those. Asked for the company’s targets in the region, he said that if a territory wasn’t achieving a minimum of 3million EURO (US$4.7million) the company would have to question that market’s need for a production facility. The TV ManUnion deal will see FremantleMedia shows produced in, and for, Japan; as well as TV Man Union content and formats exported globally. But, according to one source, making Western formats work in Japan is no easy task, with only seven such formats having succeeded there in twenty-five years. “This alliance will help build opportunities for us to make our shows really work for Japanese audiences,” said FremantleMedia CEO Tony Cohen. “The deal also means we can take more Japanese content across our global network.” Chairman and CEO of TV Man Union Yutaka Shigenobu said that Japanese media is in a constant stage of change. “With the transition to digital terrestrial broadcasting in 2011, the way we produce and broadcast programming will diversify more than ever before. Relations between foreign and Japanese programmers and producers will become even more important.”