MIP madness has been and gone and the most resounding message of the week in Cannes, was that television content is becoming an increasingly tailored and personal experience.
This was the theme of Disney-ABC Television Group’s president Anne Sweeney, during her keynote speech at the Palais. During the talk she highlighted how television is changing, adapting and innovating at a startling pace. “It’s impossible to predict what television will look like in fi ve to ten years time. The odds are, it will look different to everybody,” she said, adding that television is no longer something to watch, but rather to do. “Young people tweet and blog about shows as they watch them…The more personalized television gets, the less passive the experience will become.”
One of the most poignant statements Sweeney made that afternoon came from a Deloitte study, “In today’s world, TV is the medium around which all others revolve.”
This is, of course, the sort of news the 12,500 delegates at MIP wanted to hear. With estimates of the global television audience reaching 4 billion by the end of this year – which, by the way, will have consumed around (note) 4.5 trillion hours of television – then more content, different content and personalized content will defi nitely be called for. Asia sits on the cusp of television’s tomorrow and the region is ripe with new ideas. The biggest challenge is to keep the tap on creative talent running, allowing even more diverse ideas to fl ow.
This surge of creativity is also refl ected with the number of entries for this year’s Asian Television Awards. Final tally was just shy of 1,040 entries across the 35 categories, up from 981 in 2010. Not only did entries from Malaysia, New Zealand and the Philippines (amongst others) increase markedly, but it also saw high numbers of entries in the new and tweaked awards, such as Children’s Programme, Documentary Series and Theme Song.
Judging will be complete in a few weeks and in the next issue, TV ASIA Plus will highlight some of this year’s new shows vying for top honours in the region.
