Lee Deok-Jae, President of CJ E&M Media Content Bureau has greenlit some super scripted TV shows during his career. A creative visionary with a commercial sixth sense, he is sure to pull a huge audience when he kicks off ATF’s pre-market conference as keynote speaker on 1 December 2015 at the Marina Bay Sands.
Please share with us about your topic (Into the Future of Television: An Asian Empire’s Move Forward)
Lee: The theme of my keynote address is to inspire local content creators to produce content that reflects their unique culture and emphasise Asian, as well as global cooperation. To be successful, you have to be willing to take risks to develop original content that will hopefully cross borders.
Lee, who is a veteran in the broadcast industry in Korea, has a career spanning more than 20 years in the television business. Lee will also speak about CJ E&M’s content and digital strategies, international formats, MCN developments and further investment into these areas. Lee will highlight some of CJ E&M’s recent successes, as well as his intensive past experiences on organising Korea’s most powerful pay-TV platform channel, tvN, which has led to compelling decisions made today and will determine future partnerships within Asia. This will be one of the most exclusive and progressive insights into one of Asia’s most significant media empires.
What has been the main strengths of CJ E&M’s offering?
Lee: It is all about content! CJ E&M is no longer considered just a broadcaster, but a content creation and marketing company. We have committed substantial investment in content creators and marketing. The success of Grandpas over Flowers, The Genius Game and I can see your Voice are highly due to the creativity of in-house producers and a marketing strategy that uses social media and digital platforms.
What do you think are the factors driving Asia’s pay-TV market?
Lee: We have no doubt that Asia’s pay-TV market is growing. Even with millennials, it is better than ever. But at the same time, it is very difficult to predict the exact future landscape because viewers’ behaviour changes fast and is unpredictable. However, there are things that will consistently drive the market. One, is unique and original content. Viewers will always be willing to pay for premium content. The other is long tail strategy. Pay- TV allows the viewers to consume more values on content.
What challenges and opportunities does the digital world offer?
Lee: I would like to say that there can be more opportunities, rather than challenges in the digital era. Users consume more on premium content through digital. This is why CJ E&M encouraged our best content creator Nah Young-Suk to create the first ever Korean web-entertainment format Here Comes Trouble and New Journey to the West. The result was more successful than we had expected, receiving 50 million views total.
The most important thing in digital content business is the user – friendly creator network and community. CJ E&M plans to cooperate with Asian creators and MCN business operators in the future.
