TVAPlus: What are your goals and strategies for the Taiwan TV market? We started the Taiwan office late last year so we’re kind of a late-comer in this market. It has a very mature cable business and is also one of the most important Chinese language markets. But the good thing is that the market is undergoing changes, some transitions in a positive manner. There are new launches of pay-TV platforms. There are changes of ownership on platforms and TV channels. And finally, after years of waiting, the digitization of cable channels has started to gain traction. Even though pay-TV penetration is one of the highest in the region, the digital penetration is one of the lowest currently. With all the changes, we feel there is a need for new channels, particularly for Chinese channels. The goal here is for us to establish ourselves, since Celestial is fairly unknown to audiences here. TVAPlus: Celestial has been around a long time in Asia. Why did it take so long for it to setup in Taiwan? Prior to the digitization and emergence of new platforms it has been diffi cult for new channels to launch. Now that technology has changed, this has given more options. We have been licensing our content in this market for the last 10 years, so from this licensing experience it proves the content is still highly desirable for this market. It’s just that due to the situation of the capacity of the cable systems, we were not able to launch a local channel there. TVAPlus: You have a diverse experience in media, how are you applying this to your new role at Celestial? I started about 15 years ago in pay-TV doing programme distribution and Taiwan was one of my most important markets. I had established a lot of relationships in the early days of pay-TV here and thankfully, all my old friends are in very important places now. This comes in quite handy for Celestial, so obviously I intend to use that part of the experience. Also I think my new media background also comes into play because we see a lot of opportunities there. TVAPlus: So Celestial is looking into online programming initiatives? We’re not creating Internet specific programming as such – everything we do is generally a multi-platform approach. But Taiwan is highly broadband connected; there are also two IPTV operators here, and a high mobile phone penetration. So we’re talking to many of the companies in this ecosystem to collaborate more on content opportunities. TVAPlus: Celestial is not the only Chinese channel in Taiwan. How is it going to stand out from the rest? Taiwan, in terms of advertising and subscription revenues, is quite a sizable market. But currently the viewership is quite fragmented because there are so many channels and because of that, most of the channels are quite limited in terms of their programming budgets. Celestial is a global brand so we are able to afford higher quality programming. We’re one of the few regional Chinese language channels around. The second edge we have is that we own the famous Shaw Brothers Library. In Shaw Brothers Studios’ hey days, Taiwan was one of its most important markets. The titles hold a very special place in the hearts of movie lovers in Taiwan. We’re hoping to extend from the library that we own and combine it with newer programming from some of the remakes we are doing and build a loyal following. TVAPlus: Will this extension also mean Celestial will commission works with Taiwan fi lmmakers and writers for the viewers there? This is one of our major strategies. In addition to exploring Taiwan as a market for us, we are also hoping to use Taiwan as a production base. In terms of Chinese language content, Taiwan is one of the important production centres. In the past decade, Taiwan films have been somewhat perceived, fairly or unfairly, as art house movies without a lot of commercial appeal. But there on the ground here, you actually can witness a major shift from the filmmakers, directors and producers in terms of their mindset because they understand the importance of the China market and the importance of the regional market and the renaissance of Chinese language films. I am meeting with a new breed of producers and directors that are thinking purely commercial projects. We are continually reaching out to this market to tell people we are here to help take Taiwan production global. In addition to reaching out to directors and producers, we are also reaching out to on on camera personalities. Taiwan has traditionally been a hot-bed for such talent feeding the Chinese speaking world, so-to-speak. But the talent management market here is quite fragmented. Celestial has the capabilities of being regional, in terms of China content companies, and we have channels distributed in the region. So in that sense, we are unique in terms of being able to promote talent regionally. We can identify a lot of good talent here. TVAPlus: Are these efforts aiming to capture a younger or new generation of Celestial viewers – beyond the classic martial arts films? We are going to reconnect our library titles and our brand with the younger generation. We are going to make relevant our existing titles and that by way of re-makes, reboots and adaptations of existing titles. A library can only get older and older, so we are also busy creating new content and a new library. I also think that Taiwan has an edge in drama so we plan to exploit this further this year. And in fact, with martial arts movies, we’re seeing a renaissance of sorts. They’re popular again with the kids, not just in Asia but in the U.S also. So I think our timing is good and our titles are relevant again.