Singapore – The 9th edition of the annual Asia Television Forum (ATF) saw a total of US$73.7 million worth of programming sales concluded at this year’s market, surpassing last year’s US$62.7 million. News-making headlines included the unveiling of Mediapolis@One North, Singapore’s latest boost to its media infrastructure with state-of-the-art facilities to attract international media companies, media schools and R&D firms. The new media park will be jointly developed by the Media Development Authority of Singapore (MDA), IDA, the Economic Development Board (EDB) and Jurong Town Corporation (JTC). A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed between MDA and the Korea IT International Cooperation Agency (KIICA) to formally seal a joint commitment to oversee media co-productions between both countries. The i-Screener programme was launched as a digital market extension. Salon Media Management, Singapore-based subsidiary of the Salon Film Group in Hong Kong, announced the setting up of a multi-million dollar Integrated Media Fund to be used to produce a slate of feature films, TV series, animation and interactive game development content over the next five years. Korean distributor Pixtrend Inc. and animation studio NeonPumpkin Inc., inked a co-production deal with Australia’s Crewjo and Malaysia’s Backbone Entertainment for the preschool 2-D animated series, Charlie Gribble and the Magic Maps. UK-based Passion Distribution successfully closed programme sales for its line of featured documentaries. ATF saw close to 700 participating companies from 50 countries on the all-new exhibition format at Suntec Singapore, marking an overall increase of 15 per cent from last year’s event. This included 138 new seller companies and 93 new buyer companies who participated for the first time. Seven international pavilions from France, Malaysia, Singapore, Spain, Taiwan and South Korea have already confirmed their return for 2009. The 10th edition of the Asia Television Forum will be held from 2 – 4 December 2009.