Natalie Lawley, Acting Manager, Program Sales Worldwide, and Sales Manager, Australia, Asia & New Zealand
“The continued expansion of digital activity across the region has impacted our deals. Much more so now, we are including the digital rights in broadcasting contracts as well as concluding standalone digital deals.
Pay TV sales across Asia have risen with the birth of new channels across the region providing avenues for more content. We have also seen a rise in our LIVE event rights to support kids’ content sold throughout the region.
Content
We have three incredible animated properties: Bananas in Pyjamas; The Adventures of Figaro Pho, non-dialogue animated series by award winning Luke Jurevicius; and the second series of The WotWots from the Oscar winning WetaWorkshop. These HD titles have proved enormously successful and offer online/ digital, merchandise and events rights. Strong, unique and topical documentaries have also seen a rise in sales, particularly hour-long specials.
We released a record number of titles at MIPCOM and we’re really seeing the results from these. We are looking at content through co-production, through acquisition and also continuing to distribute the content that ABC internally produces.
There will be a big push on our digital content sales across Asia and the rest of the world.”
Ling Sze Gan, Senior Director, Content Sales, Asia, A+E Networks
“HD has really grown across the region and has become a common language. We’re also seeing increased interest from broadcasters in 3D which has become a new talking point.
The Asian media landscape has become highly competitive with the entrance of digital platforms and gadgets that allow viewers to access and consume more content. A+E Networks has responded to viewer demands by broadening our catalogue and pushing the boundaries of our non-fiction programming to include more character-driven series. We have also added new non-fiction series and original movies from Lifetime which target women.
Goals
We’re seeing strong interest in the original local productions from AETN All Asia Networks, including Hidden Cities, Four Heavenly Kings and Tycoons of Asia. And our goal for 2012 is to continue to create entertaining and relevant programming for Asian viewers that will drive ratings and revenue in Asia on our channels. This, in turn, will help increase our resources for more local content creation.”
Joyce Yeung, SVP & GM for BBC Worldwide Sales & Distribution Asia, BBC Worldwide Channels
“Audiences’ demand for top quality entertainment has led to a very successful year for us in format licensing. China launched four local productions of our titles, South Korea made their own version of Top Gear and Dancing with the Stars, with the latter also being produced in Vietnam and Indonesia.
Our dramas such as Torchwood: Miracle Day and Sherlock, which is about to deliver a second series, have both performed very well and coming up, we have a wonderful Caribbean based detective series Death in Paradise.
On the factual side, Life has been a great success and hot on its heels are Planet Dinosaur and Frozen Planet, which has just launched in the UK with fantastic ratings.
Goals
We’ll continue to build on our successful global brands such as Top Gear, Dancing with the Stars and Walking with Dinosaurs, focusing on both format licensing and finished programme sales. We are also going to venture into original production of factual content in Asia and will continue to expand our digital presence especially in key markets.”
Joanne Azzopardi, VP Australasia, Beyond Distribution
“Given that Beyond Distribution represents a number of new lifestyle shows each year, the increase in lifestyle channels in Asia and such programming has been a positive for us. Also broadcasters are always looking for the multi-platform elements of a TV property, especially in the children’s genre, and there’s been a greater influx of VOD requests.
In Asia Pacific there’s a demand for entertaining factual series. We anticipate strong interest in our new fun science series This Vs That. This series has “Mythbusterish” elements of knowledge through experimentation but the key differences are that the questions answered are about everyday dilemmas we can all relate to.
Content
We want to continue building our factual catalogue and increase our tween content, both from our own productions and third party productions. We’ve done a few children’s co-productions in China and we’re very keen to continue this in other parts of Asia.”
Roberto Corrente, Manager, Eastern Europe & Asia, Caracol
“There’s been incredible growth and expansion of content demand, for both fully made programmes, as well as adapted or co-produced contents, aiming to cope not only with the local taste demands but also to the array of new content platforms.
As a result of a recent important production effort, Caracol now has a well articulated line up that can address a wide range of audiences. Asian viewers’ tastes are varied and we have a new batch of products for not only our traditional female audiences, such as telenovelas, but also for men and younger audiences. All of this is possible through the contribution of new technologies and the diversification of content platforms and formats.
Goals
Our main goal is focused not only to keep the growth we have experienced recently in the region, but also being able to offer more and better content and most importantly, to get to as many viewers as possible, which includes employing all the media platforms available and also through a combination that offers fresh and varied productions, and the flexibility that allows us to customize, adapt and co-produce this content to the local taste of each market we work with.”
Jose Mari R. Abacan, Vice President for Program Management Department, GMA Network, Inc., GMA Network, Inc.
“In the past 12 months, our content has radically changed. Though we have our original productions, we still need high-quality canned materials that fit our programming thrusts and directions. We are looking into fresh content that deals mostly with current affairs, as we have repositioned our other channel to be more news focused. Dubbed as GMA News TV, it is the first and only news and public affairs channel on Philippine VHF free-to-air TV.
Goals
We are still on the look-out for more Asian dramas; heart-warming family stories and romantic series are still popular in the Philippines. Adventure and action-filled animated titles also make for a varied programme grid. We are also building our movie library and stocking up on both locally-produced and foreign titles.”
Kim Wong-Nathan, Vice President, Network Commissioning, Programming & Production 5, MediaCorp TV
“Popular shows such as Channel 5’s homegrown game show We Are Singaporeans, EMMY-nominated comedy satire The Noose, docu-dramas and reality shows Unnatural and Renovaid as well as our popular dramas Point of Entry and The Pupil, are all titles that have done well because they are immediately relatable and relevant to Singaporeans.
A number of these titles also have online extensions and presence that provide additional content to cater to an online viewing audience, thus expanding our reach.
Goals
Our goal for the coming year is definitely to focus our strategies on increasing local output, developing more variety tent-poles and factual content for the channel as well as ensuring that more titles occupy the online realm. Channel 5 will continue to strive to be the English entertainment channel of choice, producing local content that our audience can relate to, as well as curating the best of internationally acclaimed titles to bring to our viewers an appealing mix of content.”
Dato’ Sri Kamaruddin Siaraf, Secretary General, Head of Delegation for ATF 2011, Ministry of Information, Communications and Culture, FINAS – Malaysia
“Healthy competition is on its rise in the region’s TV landscape as a number of new local PayTV platforms are taking on ASTRO, Malaysia’s largest direct broadcast satellite Pay television service provider. Nilamas Corp Berhad has just announced that it expects to offer an interactive digital cable-TV service and developing its own original content as well as acquired. The set-up cost is expected to be USD$645 million over five years. Telecos and IPTV players, such as Telekom Malaysia Berhad, RedTone International Berhad and Maxis Berhad, are also expected to launch soon.
Malaysian documentaries and animation programmes have attracted the greatest interest this year. Titles such as Fight Master: Silat, The Joss Stick Maker and Among the Great Apes with Michelle Yeoh have aired on National Geographic Channel Asia, Discovery Network Asia Pacific and AETN All Asia Networks. Animation programmes such as SeeFood, BoBoiBoy, Boo & Me, Supa Strikas and Saladin have also been well distributed around the world as well.
Goals
The region is expected to have a healthy rise in demand for original content and programming, especially localized and regional content. Moreover, an increase in the choice and variety of channels will also be in demand.
Exciting changes are taking place and we’re looking forward to the transformation of the Asian Digital Content Industry and Malaysia becoming a regional hub for digital content and deal with the increase in demand for multi-platform content.”
Angel Orengo, Senior Vice President, Distribution, Asia-Pacific, Sony Pictures Television
“The Asia Pacific region’s TV market is growing with new pay-TV offerings and new media platforms evolving in the past 12 months, creating more opportunities for content to be enjoyed by consumers anywhere and on-demand.
The entry of Hulu into Japan, including on Playstation via the Sony Entertainment Network, is helping change the delivery of content in the region, giving consumers more viewing control. Working across multiple platforms is an absolute now and has many advantages.
For SPT, this means a growing demand for content driven by the interest of viewers; therefore high-quality content is the key to success. Riding on high quality and diverse content with a focus on drama, SPT has remained ahead of the curve. We have introduced new content while building on our vast and diverse library.
Content
Our recent sale of Pan Am to IMAGICA in Japan along with exciting new deals with Star in India, TVNZ in New Zealand and AXN in Hong Kong and pan-regionally, further demonstrates broadcasters’ strong desire for recognizable shows from the US.
SPT’s vast and unrivaled library of high-quality content enables broadcasters and other outlets to appeal to a broad spectrum of Asia-Pacific audiences through multiple platforms. SPT is devoted to growing our relationships with Asian distributors and constantly adding value to them, focusing on long term value and not short-term gain.
SPT has a true partnership approach when working with Asian networks, to ensure SPT delivers the right and desirable content offering to the right networks. In 2012, we are committed to working across multiple platforms that make our content more available to viewers on demand.”
Tarun Mehra, Business Head – Asia Pacific, International Division at Zee Network, Zee Networks
“The television industry in the region is in a state of rapid flux led by the growing demand for HD programming especially in the past 12 months. Keeping this trend in mind, Zee TV is currently in the process of rolling out more such content to satisfy the needs of our new-age TV viewer.
Goals
We are always on the lookout to constantly develop awe-inspiring stories which strike a chord with the audience and create engaging content in the non-fiction genre as well as the fiction genre.
As we move towards an environment excessively being dominated by technological upheavals, it is going to be our endeavour to keep abreast of the latest technology and adapt to the ever-changing medium in order to cater to the relevant masses with relevant content and ensure availability on relevant platforms.
We at Zee TV are exploring co-production opportunities in markets like Malaysia and China to name a few.”
