The 10th edition of the Asia Television Forum (ATF) closed strongly with US$88.7 million worth of deals transacted, according to Reed Exhibitions, organizer of Asia’s leading content market. Business generated represents approximately 20 percent growth from last year’s record of US$73.7 million programming sales. ATF enjoyed eight percent growth in overall participation. Out of 358 selling companies, 139 were new sellers. Buyer participation grew by five percent as well with 62 new buying companies out of 312. There were a total of nine international pavilions on the show floor this year, including two new pavilions from Canada and Italy. Asia content continues to rise on representation, with increased participation from China, Malaysia, Taiwan and South Korea. The ATF theme for 2009, ‘Rise with Asia’, conveyed the growing importance of Asia as a market for financing, producing, generating computer graphics, buying and selling of content. With the rising popularity of Formats in Asia, the second day of the ATF conference was dedicated to Formats discussion, which was extremely well received. The Format Superpitch – a competition for the ‘Greatest Formats’ idea with six contending producers from around the region was also held in conjunction with ATF and the winning entry was BITWORLD ‘Two Rooms’ by NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation). In a speech delivered by Lui Tuck Yew, Singapore’s Acting Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts during the Opening Ceremony, “Given the relatively stronger economies in Asia, Western producers know they have to pay even more attention to Asia in search of opportunities, fresh ideas, capital and markets. With a noticeable increase in collaborations in the areas of film and television productions, the importance of Asia as a market and its influence on global media productions is stronger than ever before.” Announcements of major international co-production agreements and media collaborations included: • Singapore Oak3 Films, MediaLab and the History Channel from the UK, and China Intercontinental Communication Centre (CICC) from China agreed to co-produce high definition documentary Monumental Challenge. • MyChinaChannel and Shanghai Media Group’s distribution arm, Wings Media, agreed to co-produce two infotainment television series – China Trend and Foreigners in China. MyChinaChannel also signed an MOU with SMG Wings Media to jointly aggregate the best Chinese drama and movies for distribution outside of China. • The October 2009-launched Call for Proposal under the MDA-ScreenWest Cross-Media Development Initiative resulted in three winning proposals announced at ATF, namely: Potted Histories by Australia’s Great Western Entertainment and Singapore’s Infinite frameworks; Are you Smarter than Nature by Australia’s Sea Dog Films and Singapore’s Very! Productions; and Global Sound Hunters by Australia’s Circling Shark Productions and Singapore’s Xtreme Production. • Japan’s Technology Seed Incubation and Singapore’s Thymos Capital also signed an MOU during ATF. The two incubators will identify and match-make promising media companies in Singapore and Japan to co-develop and distribute mobile games and applications, new media technologies and animation co-productions for the global market. • The National Film Development Corporation of Malaysia (FINAS) announced a US$55 million (RM200 million) fund to spur participation and accelerate growth in digital creative industry. The Fund will take the form of a soft loan and will be available to all local companies and joint ventures with at least 51 percent local ownership, and will be managed by a leading Malaysian bank. • Qatar-based pan Arab edutainment TV channel Al Jazeera Children’s Channel (JCC) and the Malaysia Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) announced an US$8 million venture to co-produce the Saladin animated TV series. Production of the action-adventure series commenced in Malaysia in 2008 and the first season consisting of 13 episodes, 26’ each, is expected to be broadcast in the 4th quarter of 2010. Second season of another 13 x 26’ episode will be released in mid 2011. “MICO’s participation in ATF 2009 was fruitful. We had much success in meetings with buyers, particularly during the first two days of the market. From an exhibitor point of view, ATF serves as a great platform to network and to sell. The rapid increase in buyer attendance compared to last year is notable too,” commented Shuji Yamada, sales and business development, Media International Corporation (MICO), Japan. “ATF deserves kudos for making new innovations and improvements every year by leaps and bounds! This makes it very tempting for exhibitors as well as buyers to join every year,” said Saeed Shiraz, chief executive, Sterling International, Pakistan. The enhanced version of the “i-Screener” was also unveiled at the “i-Screener” Lounge this year. Launched at ATF last year, the “i-Screener” digital portal allows streaming of content in a secured digital environment and facilitates on-demand viewing of trailers. The “i-Screener” initiative is developed in partnership with Ascent Media and Oracle, supported by the InfoComm Development Authority of Singapore, in line with the Digital Marketplace Programme, which aims to establish Singapore as Asia’s trusted hub for managing and distributing digital content and services. Commented Michelle Lim, general manager, Reed Exhibitions, “We are delighted that the market closed on an optimistic note. With the purchasing momentum and the overall economic outlook gearing back on track, we expect year 2010 to be an even better year for the market. In fact, 91 percent of the sellers have indicated their interest to participate in ATF 2010, while 94 percent of the buyers have indicated their intention to return next year.”
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