Q: In March, you announced the acquisition of firstwindow exclusive rights from ITV Studios Global Entertainment to a new original drama series Rectify. This is essentially a global buy for your networks around the world. Is a “global buy” the buying strategy now?
A: We come across it in different ways. Most of our programming is developed in-house, owned outright, including Rectify. Some programming is co-produced, some have deals that involve distribution to places where we do not have channels. If new programming comes out, and we feel it’s really suitable for our networks abroad, we’d secure it, and most importantly, secure it exclusively in the first window. What we’re seeing is that what really drives pay-TV at the premium level is narrative fiction series. Arguably, we’re producing some of the most critically-acclaimed fictional narrative series out there.
Q: How has the expansion of Sundance and WE tv into Asia been in the past year?
A: Sundance has seen a lot of expansion across Asia in the past year, most notably on TrueVisions and SkyCable in the Philippines, and on Astro (Malaysia), just to name a few. We’ve also seen our existing subscriber base increase, and that number will continue to increase.
We’re also very happy with what we’ve done with WE tv. WE represents an important proposition for us in that there is a huge demographic primarily skewing towards the female audience in the region that I think is relatively underserved. So we’re experimenting with that and seeing how we can best serve that audience in a manner that’s economically wise but creatively compelling.
Q: You’re entering the market at somewhat late in the game. Have you played “catch up”?
A: We’ve certainly come in late but I think the value proposition and the compelling nature of our channel really puts us above the pack. We have this wonderful brand in Sundance which is well known throughout the world. It’s been in a lot of markets and already doing good work; nurturing and developing talent, organising workshops, through featuring films at Sundance festivals, and through Robert Redford’s good philanthropic work. Also, the brand really stands for quality, featuring content that’s not otherwise available in the mainstream media, so that’s really important. And we’re featuring what are arguably the best narrative fiction series that ever have been made. They resonate across boundaries and when you have them in exclusive windows as we have, that’s really offering a lot more value than the incumbent networks that aren’t doing a lot of the things we’re doing. We provide not just this programming, but in a way that serves all that functionality needs of our operators. We embrace on-demand applications, we embrace mobility – Television everywhere – on an authenticated basis. We also have a forward-thinking attitude about tying all that into a feature that not only operators, but consumers are increasingly asking for. Very few channels tick off all those boxes and we’re one of them and that’s why I think we’re going to see a lot more success.
Q: Has your digital offerings served you well, revenue wise?
A: We’re offering a service that operators want and consumers are asking for. It’s a service that includes a linear channel, VOD programming, everywhere applications where it’s relevant so I don’t break down the revenues in between. I look at it as the way all programmers increasingly have to look at and provide that product to be available across the board. In that way I think the revenue proposition is a sense a single value proposition.
Q: You are hiring within Asia. How would that help in your business?
A: With Keith Mak and his team fronting channel distribution in Hong Kong and an ongoing search for a scheduling and creative services team in Singapore, we want to be more and more in the region. We just really started launching these channels a few years ago. I think the natural evolution and the ultimate success, especially in the creative side, is to have more folks that we can hire from the region and locate in the region – those with a touch and feel for what’s going on in the markets.
Q: What challenges have you faced when doing business in Asia?
A: We’ve already invested a lot in content. Now you’ve got to go and build distribution to get a return ultimately on that investment – that’s always a challenge, but we’re meeting our targets and we’re happy with that. I think the challenge is to introduce a product like Breaking Bad, which is one of the most critically acclaimed show in the history of U.S. television. It looks so different from what’s seen previously, so getting it beyond initially feelings and appearance does present a challenge but the pay offs are enormous if we’re patient. We faced that challenge in the U.S. when Mad Men came out because people were asking ‘how a series about advertising business in the 1960s ever possibly work?’, yet it changed how TV is done in the U.S. So we work on getting our audiences past their initial misperceptions.
Q: Tell me about your goals at MIPTV.
A: We’re excited about MIPTV for a number of reasons. We get to meet with so many of our affiliates from around the world and we often use it as an opportunity to meet new potential affiliates and present them with what we’re doing. We’re really excited to get out there and tell everyone about this new show Rectify which is just extraordinary. We will also be looking for product as well, which we acquire quite a lot of. Our content strategy comes in four parts:
1. Produce great, original shows, many of which are in their first, exclusive window.
2. Acquire great independent films fresh from the festival – we had a bunch of great independent films we bought out of Sundance Utah that we’re going to get on the air fresh, two to three months after the festivals.
3. Acquire local independent films – films that have a real connection to the markets in which we broadcast.
4. Acquire general great across-the-board independent films spanning the whole range of the independent movement.
That’s kind of our mission so when we go to MIP or any market we try to source content to fill that out.
Q: At the upcoming APOS (Asia Pacific Pay- TV Operators Summit) in Bali, you will be in panels discussing “HD in Asia” and “Premium Entertainment”. What do you make of HD in Asia?
A: Our commitment to quality, which is what the brand stands for, is uncompromising. I think we’re one of the few broadcasters that only broadcast in HD and only has ever broadcast in HD. I think in some markets where there’s not wide HD penetration, we’ll down convert it at headends in SD but the broadcast itself is done in HD and of course the future of the business is HD. It may take longer in some markets, but that’s where it’s going. Once you’re an HD viewer, you really can’t go back to SD.
Q: What about “Premium Entertainment”. How might you define what is “premium”?
A: The question becomes how do you keep people watching TV? How do you keep them paying subscriptions that are often rising every year? We think the answer is simply this – the content has to be better than ever. The more we can amass, accumulate, collate, and put that kind of content for our channel, we’re not only helping ourselves, we’re helping the future of pay-TV industry because that’s what’s going to keep people coming back. If you then, through authentication, provide consumers this content on-the-go, they’ll like it even more and they’ll make the pay operators who pay our bills even stronger. That’s our goal.
Recent launches
In January, AMC/Sundance Channel Global has concluded distribution agreements with major pay TV platforms in the Philippines and Thailand. These recent developments follow numerous other distribution agreements secured across Europe and Asia over the past few months. This includes additional carriage in France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, Romania, Turkey, Korea and Taiwan.
The company has recently secured distribution for both of its Asian brands, Sundance Channel and WE tv, on pay TV platforms throughout the region. Sundance Channel was recently made available for the first time to audiences as a 24/7 SD/HD linear offering on Sky Philippines. WE tv has launched in Thailand on the new IPTV platform MeTV as a 24/7 linear SD/HD channel as well. This follows the launch of Sundance Channel last year on TrueVisions in Thailand.
