Maria is late. She apologises, and tells me the flight she was on had just touched down, and that she needed a quick freshening before rushing over.
She steadies herself with a cup of hot green tea, compliments of the in-house café that this part TV studio, part retail store, part kitchen called AFC Studio offers. In the hour I was there, I saw all but two patrons. While it is hard to imagine a TV studio in a mall in downtown Singapore, it is even harder to imagine two people starting a regional channel with little or no resources; and live to tell about it.
“It’s our baby,” Maria says. “It’s the company we built from scratch. It was us two sitting on the floor, with you (co-founder Hian Goh is nearby) wiring the office, and me looking through tapes and content… before we had one team member join us.”
Seven years later, the channel that reaches over 45 million viewers in nine territories has a respectable staff strength of 80; with no one sitting on the floor.
Good News
Maria tells me she had just closed a deal in Thailand. I probed but to no avail. A week earlier, AFC was in MIPTV, selling some 70 hours worth of original productions – a first for the channel. As Maria relays feedback from buyers, she makes no attempt to conceal her excitement.
“I had my (sales) person, bound back off a plane after 20 hours of flying, completely jet-lagged, running straight to the office, saying ‘they want to buy, they want to buy!’ People were shocked at this quality of content that was coming out of Asia.”
Her sales team, she insists, always offer multiple episodes when sending out screeners as proof of consistency in quality.
It’s too early to suss out information about confirmed deals at MIPTV, “but as soon as we know, you’ll know,” she assures me.
All about the Foodies
I asked Maria about the channel’s fans and her eyes glistened. Social media is abuzz with praises about the AFC – an indicator of the channel’s growing appeal. As Maria soaks in the compliment, she likens television viewing to an “invitation into the home” and demands that the quality of her programmes matches viewers’ expectations.
“We have (such) sophisticated viewers when it comes to food that you just can’t con people; so always the food has to uphold its end of the bargain. If you’re not doing that, you’re going to lose your allimportant viewer, which is the bread and butter of what you do.”
On bread and butter, Maria does what any self-respecting TV exec will do – track eyeballs.
“I would be lying if I didn’t say that I don’t always keep an eye on the ratings. That’s one of the reasons why we made our own content, because whenever we make our own show, the ratings shoot through the ceiling!”
The Key to the Perfect Recipe
Like home-cooked food, homegrown productions are now part of AFC’s staple “diet.” Maria sets strict production standards, especially when she sources for the all-important “ingredient”– on-screen talent.
“They have to look good, I’m sorry. They cannot have a face for radio. This is television!” Maria roars into laughter, but regains composure to correct herself.
“Ugliness is not about being a model right? It’s about the ‘attractiveness’ of the individual…they’ve got to be likeable…if they’re going to be silly, they’ve got to be genuinely silly.”
Channel Identity
Maria is unapologetic about the international mix in her programming, and she is quick to address the misconception that an “Asian” channel should only feature Asian cuisine or locations.
“In Asia, people do not just sit there and eat Asian food – hello?” Maria exclaims, her face contorting with incredulity. “I don’t know one Asian who says ‘I only eat Chinese food and nothing else!’ But travel doesn’t have to mean getting on a plane and flying abroad. It can also mean crossing the road and going to a hawker stall and finding out who’s doing the best Roti Prata or Nasi Lemak.”
Pragmatics
When I remarked that all AFC original productions seem to be sponsored, Maria reminds me that it is still a business and bills need to be paid. For a channel with no government funding, staying afloat often means securing sponsorship. Still, Maria establishes who should call the shots.
“For me, we maintain artistic control over the shows. I can’t imagine how much money they’d have to pay us to say, ‘whatever you want to do, that’s fine. Go ahead and do it!’”
The skeptic in me says that finished programmes plastered with a sponsor’s brand rarely sell at markets.
Maria understands the risks though, and she is not just watching what she sells, but how. For one, she is careful not to relinquish all rights; eyeing new territories where she might one day set up shop.
“We would be very careful about selling all rights. We keep pan-Asian rights because we just don’t want to see our content on other channels, therefore we would keep ancillary rights for Asia as well.
While certain markets have performed well for AFC (Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia), Maria admits that some territories have proven to be trying. China, she laments, with its ownership laws and the (volatile) nature of those laws, has been “quite a struggle.”
MD to CEO
I cannot but help but notice the title of “Managing Director” on Maria’s business card. As her current title has been surreptitiously changed to “CEO,” I sought clarification.
“I am the CEO. Hian is still MD and Founder… and we’re still both engaged in trying to figure out what we’re going to do next for the business,” Maria explains. “I’m involved in the business on a day-to-day basis but Hian is not (but) he is very clearly involved in helping us drive a future strategy for the business.”
“The only way to avoid criticism is to lie down and die!” Maria Brown
With such a mantra, it’s hard to imagine that Maria would be without detractors.
“We continue to produce a quality channel that competes with international channels, which when we were launching we were told this could never be possible… a lot of the people who laughed at us when we first started the channel have stopped laughing, which is nice.”
Today, Maria trudges forward, taking no prisoners. She acknowledges the intense competition in the lifestyle genre but reminds me that her obligation is to her viewers and her channel.
“We’re not a channel of fad so we’re not looking for what’s popular this year. We attempt in our own way to set the trend rather than follow them (competitors)… their task is to catch up and you know, good luck with that. I don’t sit there worrying. We’re just focused on what we’re doing.”
