“The increase in the number of potential buyers around the world is a great opportunity for producers but in some ways, it is also the biggest challenge. Understanding the creative needs of so many different partners and offering a suitably tailored slate could spread some companies’ teams too thinly. So, choosing which outlets to focus on will be important for both producers and platforms.”
-Jeremy Mills
Chairman, Woodcut Media
“The challenges for 2016 actually come from the fact that there are more and more opportunities due to the multiplication of platforms and outlets for viewers to consume content. The main challenge is how content providers and broadcasters can differentiate themselves from the competition and attract audiences in an environment with so many choices. A good idea is to truly understand the target audience and to offer them experiential content which is key to strong engagement.”
-Arabelle Pouliot-Di Crescenzo
Managing Director, KABO International
“We all need to listen, innovate and find better ways to engage and entertain the consumers. The complex needs of the consumer will provide both a challenge and an opportunity for all of us in 2016.”
-Ricky Ow
President, Turner International Asia-Pacific
“For Turkey, the biggest challenge for us is the political situation. In our neighbourhood, there are too many things going on – politically and geographically, we are in the middle of everything. It is a really big challenge for the international sales of Turkish TV content, but besides that, I don’t see any problems. Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam are paying a big interest in Turkish content. Since we have too many political problems with our close neighbours, markets like Asia and LATAM are better options for us these days.”
-Ahmet Ziyalar
Managing Director, ITV-Inter Medya
“My prognosis for this year is that hopefully it will be better than the last. We’ve just had our meetings and already the census is that, people are still looking forward in a positive manner this year. Some markets have obviously different dynamics in place – Thailand now has many new stations and it is a very different marketplace than it was a couple of years ago. From an economic standpoint: take some caution because you really don’t know what is in store. Overall for the media landscape, I would say it is positive with some amount of caution going into 2016.”
-Monty Ghai
Senior Vice President and General Manager, South East Asia, BBC Worldwide
“The industry is very competitive but I think it will be generally more stable and healthy in 2016. When we talk about internet in China, we always mention the few internet giants such as Tencent, Baidu, Alibaba etc. Next year, we are more focused on subscription and on original content. It is an opportunity to get users to move from free content to paid content.”
-Maggie Xiong
Senior Director of International Acquisitions, Youku Tudou
“Everybody is now talking about digital; fragmented viewers and the millennial audiences. Everyone says that they are ready but we are not actually seeing a lot of success yet. So in 2016 as a content developer, it’s the year of taking risks, the year of experiments, the year of analysis and research. The reason why this year is so important is because a lot of people are saying that by 2018-2020, there will be ultimate winners and losers. 2016 is a pinpoint of whether you can actually go further or not. For CJ E&M, we are going to release our best catalogue ever – at least ten never before seen, completely original, new formats to the market progressively throughout the year.”
-Hwang Jin Woo
General Manager/ Head of Formats, Content Development Team, CJ E&M
“I think 2016 forward, some of the challenges the industry will be facing is how to engage the younger demographics, especially kids in their 20s. Specific categories I believe for 2016 are lifestyle – we see a lot happening in fashion, food, dayto- day challenges as a teenager-; things like these will keep growing. I think we will also start seeing the first of successfully scripted shows, and a lot of the content will travel across platforms.”
-René Rechtman
Head, International, Maker Studios (USA)
“Television has its place and will always have its place. Even with younger viewers, we are finding-domestically – that the live event formats are still hugely popular. For example, we had a live reality programme in 2015 in the UK titled Love Island and it went on ITV2. Love Island was launched with a mobile application which was designed to attract interaction with the younger audience and it was hugely successful; the show dominated social media and the uptake was incredible. So I think that while VOD is extremely exciting, live event television still attracts young people to the medium. Television is changing but it is still working for everyone. People want to share experiences; they want to go to school or work and talk about what they had watched the day before. You’ll see that VOD platforms are increasingly trying to leak things out on a traditional broadcast model, because people want to share it together. So television has got a lot more to offer in that aspect.”
-Dave Winnan
Executive Producer, International Formats, ITV Studios (UK)
“With the continuous technological advancements that allow for new customer offerings, there is a strong need for a continuous dialogue between industry representatives and regulators in the different territories to ensure that the same censorship and other rules are implemented for all types of services. Naturally it is very important to continue to work hard on cracking down on piracy to ensure that censorship rules are not allowed to be totally circumvented.”
-Jonas Engwall
CEO, RTL CBS Asia
