Videoage International January 2020

10 January 2020 V I D E O A G E F irst the trivia: The Asia TV Forum (ATF) opened its doors on December 4, 2019 — the same day that CBS re-merged with Viacom after a 14-year separation. An additional bit of trivia is a sort of Christmas miracle witnessed in the corridors of the huge Sands Convention Centre that housed the trade show. Christmas carols were not blasted 24/7 throughout the space, as has happened during past ATFs. It is also worth noting that, this time around, the ATF official market daily devoted more printed pages to market-floor activities than conferences. In the past, it hardly acknowledged that the content sales floor actually existed. Then there was the Typhoon Kammuri, which didn’t reach Singapore, but instead hovered over the Philippines just as the ATF was about to start, disrupting at least 17 flights between the two states, and delaying the arrival of Filipino buyers. One Turkish exhibitor pointed out to VideoAge that this edition of the ATF saw more sellers than buyers. Officially, “there were 5,713 executives from 60 countries, 1,046 content buyers and 783 seller companies.” However, the ATF Guide listed 555 buyers from 311 companies. What cannot be contested, though, was the large number of pavilions. There were a total of 17 from 12 countries, including the ever-present French pavilion, which consisted of 37 selling companies. The largest number of exhibitors from out- side Singapore came from South Korea (70 distributors with 31 buying companies), followed by China (with 53 distributors but only 24 buying companies), and Japan (with 51 sellers and 20 buying companies). Other large sellers included: The U.S. (with 30 companies), the U.K. (with 26 companies), Turkey (with 20 companies), and Hong Kong (with 18 companies). The ATF Guide listed 400 exhibiting companies (officially, the final figure climbed to 783), including all the U.S. studios (except for NBCUniversal, which attended as a participant and did without its usual suite). Valerie Cabrera of AMC Studios attended the ATF for the first time. She flew from her home- base of Los Angeles to “see the market first-hand in order to determine future participation.” Vanessa Cruz of Miami, Florida-based HBO Latin America attended this year for the second time, having found her first experience at last year’s ATF to be worthwhile. However, she decried the fact that her company was not included in the market guide. The presence of HBO Latin America brought back the loss of other LATAM companies, many of whom abandoned the market in droves when Turkish sellers became more prevalent a few years ago. Today, only Mexico’s Televisa and Colombia’s Caracol remain. If fewer buyers attended the market, a good number of those buyers were seen at the Japanese pavilion. The large Japanese sales contingent (which consisted of 51 companies) kept busy serving sushi and sashimi on the market’s first day, and for lunch the next day, to a packed conference room where the country’s TV productions were highlighted. That this edition of the ATF wasn’t going to be as successful as past editions was clear to at least one French distributor before the market even started due to weak responses from buyers he contacted. And the fact that themarket celebrated its 20th year did not leave any lasting impression on the distributors VideoAge spoke with. The ATF was born in Singapore in the year 2000 as a hotel-based TV market, then held at the Shangri-La Hotel. In 2008, it moved to Suntec, a convention center. Three years later it moved to its current venue, the Sands Convention Centre. A different impression of the current ATF was held by Chris Knight, president and CEO of Canada’s Gusto TV, who saw a “bigger market than last year. For us, there was muchmore traffic and more quality meetings,” he said, specifying that “quality is better than quantity,” and that the meetings averaged 45 minutes each rather than the traditional 30 minutes at other markets. In terms of territories, Knight saw an increased Japanese presence (“bigger than last year,” he commented, wondering if “the same will happen next year”), as well as a good Korean contingent. Overall, he met with “a cross-section of Southeast buyers,” but noticed, as did other exhibitors VideoAge spoke with, a reduced presence from Vietnam, which played a larger part at past ATF editions. This was Knight’s fifth ATF, and his fourth as an exhibitor focusing on channel sales (versus content sales) and potential co-productions. But the ATF was not the only concern on some attendees’ minds. A few exhibitors, like Roxanne J. Barcelona of the Philippines’ GMA Worldwide, were worried about the upcoming Hong Kong International Film and TV Market (FILMART) being suspended because of upheaval in that territory. At press time (late December) chances of the market being held March 25-28, 2020, is, in the opinion of Robert Chua, a veteran TV executive and a Hong Kong resident, 50-50. ATF 2020 will take place on December 1-4. At 20 The Market is Reaching Drinking Age, And Not One Minute Too Soon ATF Review Kanal D International’s Salmi Gambarova Gusto TV’s Chris Knight ATV’s Gozde Dinç and Müge Akar MISTCO’s Aysegul Tuzun (right) and Desmond Aram of India’s Green Gold