Singapore's Mediacorp is ramping up its engagement with YouTube by building upon its participation in the Player for Publisher (PfP) programme. Mediacorp Chief Executive, Tham Loke Kheng, talks about the next phase in the company's digital transformation.
BEC World remains one of Thailand's most significant producers and leads the country's international distribution initiatives with new properties such as "Repercussion" and "My Husband in Law", following established dramas such as "Love Destiny" and "Thong Ek" on domestic and international schedules. The Bangkok-based national broadcaster has also forged landmark partnerships with the likes of Tencent for simulcast rights in China and WeTV in other countries, and has an ongoing alliance with JKN Global Media that has landed BEC World content on mass-market free TV stations in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Singapore for the first time. Against this backdrop, Thai broadcast veteran, Surin Krittayaphongphun, shares insights about the Thai broadcast market and what he sees as the major challenges on video entertainment, the addition of streaming to a powerful broadcast business, trends and influences in Thai drama production, balancing originals with acquisitions for the domestic market, and ramping up a global presence.
Free TV remains a powerful force in Indonesia. Local stations are keeping a close watch on online activity but say the country's limited broadband reach and low appetite for paid video subscriptions mean they aren't reaching for panic buttons just yet. RTV's Chief Executive Officer, Artine Utomo, talks about what's working (and what's not) and what else she is trying at a station that has risen four places in the ratings rankings since she took over.
Discovery is ramping up regional activities out of China and Korea in a big way. The network's China-based regional boss, Tony Qiu, talks about new joint-ventures, original content plans, and the evolution from a factual channels business.
KC Global Media took over most of Sony Pictures Television's networks business across Southeast Asia, Korea, China, Australia/New Zealand and South Asia (excluding India) earlier this year. This was followed up last month with the acquisition of a bundle of Korean drama rights from SBS that expanded the network's ONE channel footprint in Indonesia. The company's President & Chief Executive, George Chien, talks about what else is in the pipeline for the regional service.
Traditional television still attracts enormous amounts of money, SVOD additions in key markets are at a record high, affordable pricing and the adoption of more services is helping to drive scale, cross consumption among OTT platforms is growing, OTT entertainment investment is soaring with local originals a key growth peg for future winners, and streaming minutes are through the roof across Southeast Asia. Vivek Couto, Media Partners Asia's (MPA) Executive Director, looks at what's playing through the pandemic.
Astro produced/commissioned 11,300 hours of original content in the year before Covid, offers more than 51,000 titles on demand as well as access to standalone streaming apps such as HBO GO and iQIYI, and has a growing streaming footprint of its own along with its strong bundle of linear content. The platform’s Head of Content, Agnes Rozario, talks about what’s going into supporting this end-to-end video entertainment environment.
Netflix just announced tie ups with two Indonesian filmmakers - the stellar Nia Dinata and up-and-coming director Hadrah Daeng Ratu - for original films. And there's a whole lot more where that came from. Almost one year into the job, veteran Asian programmer Myleeta Aga talks about what she wants and how she's going about making sure it happens.
Viu has just shattered rights barriers in Japan, continues to cherry pick the cream of Korea, and - among other initiatives across the region - has turbo-charged production in Indonesia, upsized programming alliances in Thailand, set its sights on bigger social TV initiatives, and has a broad ranging slate of local originals. Virginia Lim, Viu's chief content officer, talks about what she would like and how she's going about making it happen.
Chinese streamer iQiyi has just started filming its first Southeast Asia original drama – "The Ferryman: Legends of Nanyang", an adaptation of an iQiyi original that streamed in China in 2014. Cameras rolled in Singapore a few weeks after the platform unveiled its coming slate of 40 original dramas and 20 variety titles in China, and talked about redefining content for a new universe. At this year's ContentAsia Summit, iQiyi SVP, Chen Xiao, talks about the platform's content and creative ambitions in Asia, translating original iP for Southeast Asia and boosting relevance and engagement among audiences outside of its domestic China stronghold.
WarnerMedia Entertainment Networks premiered HBO Asia’s first sci-fi original, "Dream Raider", less than two weeks ago, debuted international co-pro “The Head” in June, and is counting down to more. Plus there's lots of energy around HBO Max titles coming into Asia, rapid fire rollouts of streaming platform HBO GO, and a bundle of entertainment channels and services programmed with everything from Korea's "Moon Fishing in Aewol" to China's "The Heart" to "Aquaman", "Jumanji" and "We Bare Bears". The company's Head of Content – Entertainment, Magdalene Ew, talks about what else is on her radar.
A few weeks ago, Thailand’s Line TV sold eight of its original drama series to Netflix for Asia. And no, Line wasn't even a little concerned about sharing titles on its home ground because, for starters, the audiences are different and the regional exposure is welcome. For Line, the deal reinforces the quality of its Thai series, which are a particular point of pride. Kanop Supamanop joins the ContentAsia Summit conversation talking about ramping up originals, pushing the content envelope, creating communities across the Line ecosystem, defining/redefining mainstream audience segments, relieving content supply side shortages, empowering producers, becoming the digitalisation engine for Thais, and his belief that all OTTs in Thailand will find their sweet spot.
Two of Indonesian streaming platform GoPlay's debut originals – Nia Dinata's "Gossip Girl" and Salman Aristo/Gina Noer's "Saiyo Sakato" – are going into second seasons; another large scripted format has been greenlit; up-and-coming filmmakers are being embraced as part of a broad effort to grow the TV ecosystem; and the 11-month-old platform is happily leveraging parent GoJek's multiple customer touchpoints as it carves a space and personality of its own amid Indonesia's streaming crazy. GoPlay's Chief Content Officer, Michael Lewis, is at the ContentAsia Summit this year talking about his commissioning checklist, who he thinks about before he says yes, and what else he has in the pipeline as GoJek celebrates its first birthday.
Taiwanese streaming platform Catchplay has unveiled a new production subsidiary, Screenworks Asia, with six projects already in development and plans to produce 100 hours a year of mini-series, movies and factual entertainment for audiences across Asia and the rest of the world. CEO Daphne Yang talks about the company’s evolution, development and direction.
Tencent-owned streaming platform WeTV has acquired regional streamer iflix, has its first original series for Indonesia in the works, and is moving forward with a freshly minted content partnership with Thailand’s BEC World/Channel 3. Kaichen Li, the head of WeTV and iflix, talks about content priorities, key growth markets in Southeast Asia, what the acquisition of iflix means, the importance of premium production and co-production, the role of Tencent Video’s Chinese originals in the rest of the region, growing cross-border content engagement and leveraging Tencent’s tech and know how.
