Video Age International January 2016

30 January 2016 V I D E O A G E “M erry Kitschmas,” read a headline in the Asian edition of the Financial Times recently. It wasn’t referring to how people in Singapore celebrate the Christmas holidays, because the majority don’t (Christians make up only 18 percent of the city-state’s population). But it could have been attributed to the pervasive Christmas carols, which are obsessively heard not only at malls, but also in almost every restaurant in the city. However, the mood at Singapore’s Sands Exposition Center, where the 16th annual Asia Television Forum (ATF) took place, was more business and less celebratory: no Christmas carols or Christmas trees. There was only the cacophony of people talking, walking and greeting each other, which, at times, sounded like people singing the blues, which in the evening they most likely turned into “slings,” the famous Singaporean cocktail. Later, on the floor, some European and Latin American exhibitors were frustrated by the fact that many Asian buyers don’t often respond to e-mail or calls requesting meeting appointments at ATF, and were hoping for walk-ins to save the day. Perhaps, as explained by Sonia Fleck of Singapore-based Bomanbridge Media, this is another indication that personal relationships are especially important in Asia. And, it must be added, markets such as ATF are essential to establish these connections. North Americans, on the other hand were generally happy with the event. “It was a great market for us. A lot more activity than last year. The market seems to be growing nicely,” said Starz’s Todd Bartoo. Another observation is that, while U.S. studios are now successfully offering content featuring Asian talent, the rest of the West is still peddling shows with homogeneous — and thus unrelatable — protagonists. That said, Asian buyers appreciate formats from Western countries, and Latin American distributors are also capitalizing on the trend. The conferences began on December 1, a day before the market opened with 79 individual stands, 16 pavilions and nine hospitality suites rented by U.S. studios and the BBC. All in all, sellers came from 39 countries. With 10 countries, Europe put on a good show, a sort of resurgence compared to previous editions. On the other hand, the number of countries from the Americas stood at seven. These figures were taken from the market guide, which however, did not include a few exhibitors such as the Philippines’ ABS-CBN, Turkey’s ATV and TRT, and participants such as Los Angeles-based GRB. Some exhibitors also complained that a number of people listed as buyers said that they did not plan to attend when they were contacted to set up appointments. The problemwas attributed to the fact that themarket guide was printed as early as October. As expected, with 63 companies, the bulk of participating sellers came from Singapore, followed by Japan (52) and South Korea (49), although most of those companies were housed in 16 pavilions from 10 countries. In total, some 4,800 people attended the four-day conference and three-day market events. The conference was marked by periods of heavy rain, as the equatorial city was entering the monsoon season. With 12 participating countries, Asia represented the largest number of territories, confirming remarks by Angeline Poh of Singapore’s Media Development Authority in an earlier VideoAge interview that ATF is now an intra-Asian trading market. Looking at the ATF Conference Guide (this year it was separate from the market directory, shared with the concurrent ScreenSingapore), the first thing that’s noticeable is the increased number of conferences and how just a few are related to industry topics outside Asia. Among the 24 conferences spanning three days, one was a “conversation” with Steve MacAllister, CEO of U.K.’s all3Media and another on kids formats with Marcel Vinay, CEO of Mexico’s Comarex. At the ScreenSingapore event, seven conferences were held, including one on film festivals’ selection process with Paolo Bertolin of the Venice Film Festival. Also concurrent with ATF, the Singapore International Film Festival caused a controversy when The Room , one of the films screened at the Festival from Singaporean director Eric Khoo, could not be shown in local cinemas because of its erotic content. Of the 29 countries that sent buyers to ATF, 16 were Asian, mostly from Singapore (38 companies), followed by Indonesia (28), Taiwan and South Korea (with 24 each), China (23), Thailand (16) and Vietnam (14). However, inorder togive it awider international appeal, ATF is now the umbrella for four additional events: The Asian Television Awards, ScreenSingapore, Digital Matters and Singapore International Film Festival, which ended on December 6, two days after the conclusion of ATF. In addition, within ATF special attention was given to formats and children’s television with focused events. ATF is organized by Reed Exhibitions, whose regional offices are based in Singapore. The group is also part of Reed Midem (organizer of MIP-TV and MIPCOM), but under a different structure. In the past Reed Midem was asked to be involved with some ATF activities, but has since abandoned them. Singapore Market “Slings” The Blues Instead of Christmas Carols Asia TV Forum Review FIC’s Prentiss Fraser and Maggie Liu Sonia Fleck of Bomanbridge Media GRB Entertainment’s Benn Watson