Singapore – The 10th edition of the Asia Television Forum (ATF) closed strongly with US$88.7 million worth of deals transacted, according to REED Exhibitions, organiser of Asia’s leading content market. Business generated represents approximately 20% growth from last year’s record of US$73.7 million programming sales. Despite the current economic climate, ATF enjoyed 8 per cent growth in overall participation. Out of 358 selling companies, 139 are new sellers. Buyer participation grew by 5% as well with 62 new buying companies out of 312. There are a total of nine international pavilions on the show floor this year, including two new pavilions from Canada and Italy. Asia content continues to rise on representation, with increased participation from China, Malaysia, Taiwan and South Korea. This year’s ATF theme, ‘Rise with Asia’, conveys the growing importance of Asia as a market for financing, producing, generating of computer graphics, buying and selling of content. With the rising popularity of Formats in Asia, the second day of the ATF conference was dedicated to Formats discussion, which was extremely well received. The Formats Superpitch – a competition for the ‘Greatest Formats’ idea with six contending producers from around the region was also held in conjunction and the winning entry was BITWORLD ‘Two Rooms’ by NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation). “We are delighted that the market closed on an optimistic note this year. With the purchasing momentum and the overall economic outlook gearing back on track, we expect year 2010 to be an even better year for the market. In fact, 91 percent of the sellers have indicated their interest to participate in ATF 2010, while 94 percent of the buyers have indicated their intention to return next year,” said Michelle Lim, general manager, Reed Exhibitions.