Erin Silber Consultant, International Program Sales (Asia Pacific, Middle East, Israel), 4Kids Entertainment 4Kids Entertainment’s hottest title selling into Asia continues to be our flagship series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles which is celebrating its 25th Anniversary this year. Our broadcast partners continue to support the series because the property remains evergreen – fun stories, heroes with personality and attitude and comedy action adventures that continue to entertain kids around the world. As our program catalogue for the Asian market continues to expand with Chaotic and Rocket Monkeys among others, broadcasters are turning to 4Kids to find high-quality entertaining content ranging from action-adventure to comedy-adventure to edutainment, catering to children and parents of all ages. Our exciting new shows that we are bringing to the Asian marketplace are Chaotic: M’Arillion Invasion (26 x 30’)and Rocket Monkeys (26 x 30’ or 52 x 11’). The Chaotic series now includes 66 episodes. Asian broadcasters continue to want to secure the strongest content because available time slots dedicated to kids programming remains highly limited and competitive. Japanese anime appears to be declining in popularity as Asian broadcasters are looking for more western style content such as 4Kids Entertainment’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Rocket Monkeys, Chaotic and Viva Pinata, as well as their own local productions in markets like Korea, Taiwan, India and China. There will always be a need for titles that have entertaining storylines and high production values whether the titles are action-driven, comedy-driven, edutainment-driven, boy or girl-skewed, preschool or teen focused. India and China are markets that look especially promising; we are being selective in forming the most optimum business relationships with these markets’ key players. Ling Sze Gan Content Sales Executive, Asia, AETN International Life After People has performed very well for us, garnering rave reviews from broadcasters and viewers in Japan, South Korea, China and Hong Kong. Interest is strong from other Asian broadcasters, so I expect additional sales. Our hit entertainment series, Criss Angel Mindfreak, continues to expand its reach in Asia. The newest season has been licensed in Hong Kong, Thailand, and India, with buyers from Japan, China and South Korea also expressing interest. We’re bringing over 300 new hours of programs to MIPCOM. Highlights include the series Sandhogs, about tunnel diggers in New York, Manhunters: Fugitive Task Force, a series that follows US Federal Agents as they track dangerous fugitives, and Einstein, a special about the greatest genius of our time. With a catalogue covering a broad range of subjects, Biography remains a staple for us. Content from the series can be found in South Korea, Indonesia, China, Japan and other countries throughout Southeast Asia. We have also noticed a growing interest from buyers in science themed programs such as A Global Warning, Megadisasters, and Jurassic Fight Club. The new season of our acclaimed History series, The Universe, has also been highly anticipated. Nat Abraham Head of Sales & Acquisitions and Acting Head of Distribution, Breakthrough Films & Television We have had very good success with our factual/crime series – with Crime Stories, Little Miracles and The Re-Inventors leading the charge in Asia. Fraud Squad is a brand new high definition series which focuses on the ‘business’ of fraud. Universally, fraud is second only to drug trafficking in causing harm to the economy and society. And in this groundbreaking series, every type of fraud from counterfeit money, credit/debit card fraud, home renovation scams, identity theft and many more are exposed in great detail in this gripping series that will entertain yet educate viewers worldwide. In Asia, there has been an increasing demand for kids’ live action genres as well as engaging and informative science and history-based documentaries. Technology and Lifestyle slots seem to be increasingly opening up. South Korea has opened up significantly in their demand for documentary programming. Nicola Richards Programme Sales Executive, Asia for C4i and iD Distribution Generally, high-end factual documentaries sell well. These include Undercover in Tibet / China’s Stolen Children (high-end documentaries); The Girl with 8 Limbs – probably the most widely sold / sought after (high-end); The Cult of the Suicide Bomber (high-end society documentary); as well as The Fake Trade (society documentary). In addition, factual entertainment and lifestyle has also sold well. They include Meet the Natives (factual entertainment); The World’s…And Me (factual entertainment); How Young Can I Get? (lifestyle/factual entertainment); River Cottage Treatment (factual entertainment); as well as Newly Wed, Nearly Dead (factual entertainment). Also, Peep Show (Comedy) and Nigella Bites are also very popular. iD Distribution has just acquired Nigella Express which is one of our key titles at the market. New shows that we will be bringing to MIPCOM include Wine – which investigates how consumers are being misled and ripped off by big retailers and producers in the wine industry; Superbotox Me – follows journalist Kate Spicer as she puts herself through a range of gruelling beauty procedures available these days; Newly Wed, Nearly Dead III – the series continues to drop in on married couples after year one, when the ding of the wedding bells has finally faded; Coronation Coup – a fascinating and revealing look behind the scenes at one of the most iconic moments of the 20th Century – the glittering Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II; The World’s … and Me 2 – the search for the planet’s most incredible people continues; Peep Show 6 – the sixth series of the multi award-winning and critically acclaimed hit comedy; 90 Naps a Day – exploration of life as a narcoleptic; Afghan Star – an exploration of contestants risking their lives to take part in pop idol-style TV series in Afghanistan. We’ll also be talking to buyers about In the Shadow of the Moon. Terry Mak Executive Vice President, Distribution & TV Networks, Celestial Pictures Kung fu genre continues to be a favourite for buyers in Asia. Celestial has more than 20 strategic alliances in place in Asia, and some of the best martial-arts films ever made are being distributed via this established network. Blood Brothers, The Flying Guillotine and Five Shaolin Masters are a few of the titles that remain popular with audiences. Kung fu has always been a popular genre amongst buyers in MIPCOM. Celestial Pictures will continue to highlight the renowned Shaw Brothers films, especially the evergreen martial-arts films. The market has always loved our martial arts films, and the popularity of other kung fu themed movies such as Kung Fu Panda and The Forbidden Kingdom starring Jackie Chan and Jet Li, has reaffirmed the popularity and the longetivity of the kung fu genre. For any broadcaster looking to acquire quality kung fu movies, the Shaw Brothers film library remains a must buy. Celestial’s martial-arts films had a successful run during the past year, we have co-presented many martial arts programming blocks with partners in Asia and Europe, such as Celestial Kung Fu Classic Nights aired on MGM Channel in Germany and Central Europe, Hong Retro Movies: Jing Dian Hong Guan aired on NTV 7 in Malaysia, as well as the features broadcast in Videoland Television Network in Taiwan. We foresee an increase in demand for movie contents for the entertainment digital channels in Asia, particularly in Mainland China. Recently we have licensed the rights of more than 600 Shaw Brothers films to Netmovie, China’s largest digital entertainment content provider, via the internet, IPTV, and mobile platforms in Mainland China. This has opened the doors of 30,000 internet cafés and potentially 90 million households across China to Celestial. Julie Ninomiya VP of Asian Distribution & Co-Productions, Cookie Jar Entertainment Cookie Jar’s hottest selling shows in Asia are World of Quest (an action-adventure comedy), Sushi Pack (an action-adventure comedy), Strawberry Shortcake (a series featuring the familiar icon) and Caillou (the loveable four-year-old who celebrated his 10th anniversary in 2007). This October we may give sneak peaks of our new boy’s action adventure series, Metajets (40 episodes x 30 minutes). The big TV sales push for this property will be MIPCOM 2008 and MIPTV 2009. Look for consumer products in 2010 which will include transforming toys and futuristic wrist and belt gadgets. In the preschool category, Hurray for Huckle! (26 episodes x 22 minutes), based on the loveable characters from Richard Scarry’s best-selling books will be another big show for us at MIPCOM 2008. Mothers and children alike will again fall in love with Huckle Cat and his gang who solve everyday mysteries around Busytown. The demand in India for boy’s action-adventure programs is at a high and more and more broadcasters are giving preferential treatment to HD programming. Also, buyers are asking for more live-action shows for tweens. To accommodate this new trend, Cookie Jar will be coming out with two or three new live-action series in 2009 that will intrigue and amaze viewers! Grace Chan Director, Discovery Enterprises International, Asia Pacific At MIPCOM this year, Discovery Enterprises International is offering 142 titles with over 1,700 hours of programmes across all genres to international television and licensing clients. We have a wide selection of engaging programmes, among them Science & Engineering titles such as When We Left Earth: the NASA Missions (6×60’), FutureCars (4×60’), Can We Control the Weather? (1×60’), Raging Nature (3×60’), and Human Body: Pushing the Limits (4×60’); Pandamonium (5×60’), Whale Wars (7×60’), Meerkat Manor 3 (13×30’), Perfect Predator (1×120’) from the Animals & Nature genre; and Mystery Diagnosis seasons 3 & 4 (14×60’), Mystery ER (4×60’), and I Didn’t Know I Was Pregnant (1×60’) from Health. In addition to completed programmes, we are also offering pre-production projects and format sales. Some of the key pre-production projects include Stephen Hawking’s Universe, Time Warp, J. Lo Special series, and Mermaid. Trends: In Australia/New Zealand, adventure-reality series like Deadliest Catch and Man Vs Wild have been selling well and will continue to be in demand in the coming year. Programmes from the Animal & Nature, Crime & Investigation and Health genres are also favoured by broadcasters. Diana Zakis Vice-President Sales, Latin America and Asia, Fireworks International Our hottest-selling shows into Asia recently include recent releases such as the action crime drama series The Border, the very funny drama JPOD, based on Douglas Coupland’s best-selling novel, and supernatural crime drama series Blood Ties have proven to be hot-sellers in Asia. Additionally, catalogue gems such as Mutant X, Andromeda, Relic Hunter and The Collector are perennially popular series in Asia and continue to be crowd-pleasers with renewals in multiple territories. Fireworks International will showcase a number of exciting new programs this MIPCOM – a compelling new 13 x one hour primetime drama series, two terrific new live-action twin series – Half Moon Investigations (13 x half hours) and Family Biz (26 x half hours) and Dark Path Chronicles – a cutting- edge multi-platform content series. We’ve had a great deal of success in Korea for our strong action and drama series with traditional cable, satellite platforms and IPTV, and see that trend continuing. New cable channels in the Philippines have also been receptive to our series and short-form programming. Overall, Asia on a pan-regional level is growing and we are seeing tremendous opportunity for both our fiction and factual programming. Ganesh Rajaram VP Sales Asia, FremantleMedia Enterprises The big brands like American Idol, Project Runway, America’s Got Talent, Martha Stewart, Jamie Oliver and the Mr Bean franchise continue to do well for us year after year. Our new launches include world class new dramas such as Merlin, 112 and The Strip, The eagerly anticipated music and chat show Spectacle: Elvis Costello With…., and hot new blue collar heroism programming titles including America’s Toughest Jobs and Black Gold. Reality and lifestyle programming continue to be heavily in demand in Asia. Markets like Korea, Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and the pan regionals have consistently shown great demand for our content. Raphael Corrêa Netto International Sales Director, Globo TV The presence of Globo TV International in the Asia-Pacific market had a significant improvement last year. Strategic long-term deals were made in India, Macau and Australia. Also this year, the telenovela Shades of Sin (40 episode version) was aired in China, and right now in Singapore it is possible to see the sales hit The Clone, that was sold to 78 countries and now is available in Bahasa Indonesian. Following on from the good results of portfolio diversification, the comedy series The Cleaning Lady premiered recently in Malaysia. In addition to documentaries, comedy and drama series, at MIPCOM Globo TV International will offer the Asian market the products that were sales hits in 2008. The telenovela Seven Sins, for example, has already been sold to almost 20 countries and Tropical Paradise to 18. Some of the productions that have been a sales success throughout the world, like Terra Nostra (sold to 95 countries), Family Ties (57 countries), Shades of Sin (45 countries) and America (29 countries), will be offered to the market in local languages such as: Bahasa Indonesian, Hindi, Malay, Chinese and English. We have obtained good results with our portfolio diversification strategy and the resulting increase of the offer of dubbed products to several local languages. Jamie Gao Director of Sales, Asia, Lightworks Program Distribution Our Hollywood magazine series – Hollywood Reporter, Red Carpet Reporter and Hollywood Café – have proven to be quite popular with our Asian broadcast partners. In addition to our existing catalogue, this year, we are presenting an exciting new line-up of documentary, lifestyle and reality series including: America, One Story High, The Industry, Zone X, Out There with Melissa DiMarco and Luxury Homes & Lifestyles. India is an exciting, up and coming market. The buying power is due to a number of new channel launches. Korea stays strong, although, it is an extremely selective market in that most broadcasters are seeking factual and documentary content with a high entertainment value. Also, luxury lifestyle series are in high demand and that is why I’m so excited to introduce our new Luxury Home series at the market. Format wise, HD productions are always highly sought after. Gary MacKinney Vice President, International Sales, Rive Gauche Television Our most popular shows in Asia have been our reality and clip shows such as Video Zonkers, Nowhere To Run, Sports Disasters, Real Strange, Is That a Nail in Your Head, Body Fantastic, Wild Weddings, and Whacked Out Sports. We will be introducing a number of new programs at MIPCOM, including an all-new season of the frighteningly funny hidden-camera show, Scare Tactics, which AXN has just picked up; The Cut, which chronicles the dangerous lives of Northern California lumberjacks; the blue-collar reality show, Saw for Hire, which follows Paul Nosak and his extreme team of American saw men; and Stupid Criminals where the name says it all in this amusing clip show. The general demand in Asia is for branded hit series and volume oriented shows that have a human interest component and are visually compelling. Ever-green clip shows with good-footage are popular as well. With our extensive reality-based library, Rive Gauche is able to meet the programming needs of our clients in Asia and in other TV markets around the world. Ross Pollack Senior Vice President, Distribution, Asia at Sony Pictures Television International Our hottest-selling shows into Asia recently include Damages, our series starring Glenn Close which has received seven Emmy nominations including Outstanding Drama Series; Lucy Liu’s glamorous drama Cashmere Mafia, and The Spectacular Spider-Man, the latest animated adventures of Spider-Man are some of our hottest-selling shows. We will be showcasing The Beast, Sit Down Shut Up and Gemini Division at MIPCOM. The Beast, starring Patrick Swayze, is an action-packed drama about a ruthless undercover FBI agent and the new rookie under his wing. Sit Down Shut Up is an animated comedy revolving around a group of dysfunctional high school teachers. And our new multi-platform drama Gemini Division is a sci-fi adventure about a New York cop who uncovers a conspiracy involving simulated lifeforms and the agency tasked to hunt them down. Dramas featuring strong female characters and storylines seem to be in demand. The growing buying power of females from high-income groups in Asia is driving the demand for programs targeted towards that demo. David Cornwall Director of Sales, Zodiak International Zodiak’s light entertainment shows like Cops Uncut, Pushing The Limit and Police Patrol have been of interest to clients in Korea, Indonesia and Thailand. We vhave also sold crime documentaries to Pan Asian clients. At this year’s MIPCOM, we will present an exciting selection of prime time entertainment and lifestyle formats, game shows, documentaries and reality series including The Social Game – a hilarious panel show that uncovers the unwritten social rules and codes that we have in society. Asia has always been a difficult market for our light entertainment series, but our formats have found many good homes in the region. Indonesia has been our best market for the singing formats and we are hoping that this trend will continue. In general big, flashy shows are always on clients’ shopping list. We are in talks with a few stations about our format The Perfect Crime, which is set in an impressive twin office tower block.