Videoage International November 2017

14 Asia TV Forum on the upper convention floors of Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands, and will be co-located with ScreenSingapore, a Southeast Asian marketplace for the film industry. “We expect to receive more than 5,000 content buyers and sellers from Asia and beyond,” commented Yeow. “Last year’s ATF and ScreenSingapore was attended by 5,383 participants from 54 countries, and an estimated U.S.$244 million worth of deals and partnerships were facilitated throughout the event,” she said. “Major U.S. studios that will be exhibiting include CBS Studios International, MGM Worldwide Television, NBCUniversal Television and Paramount Pictures. Countries with a strong buyer representation at ATF 2017 include key Asian markets such as China, Hong Kong, India and South Korea, as well as emerging ones such as Mongolia andMyanmar. Therewill also be buyers from outside the region, including countries like Hungary, the U.K. and the U.S,” she said. Yeow made no mention of the fact that, this year, the 10 countries of the ASEAN community are celebrating their 50th anniversary. Member state Singapore staged several celebratory events during the months of July, August and October, and the ATF is expected to benefit from an influx of participants from other member countries such as Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. VideoAge will once again be in attendance and will focus on gathering market information. Last year, reporters were surprised to bump into European program buyers, like YLE’s Johanna Salmela, who was looking to acquire Asian TV series “with a limited number of episodes to be subtitled in Finnish.” The ATF also boasted a large presence of Turkish companies, including the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce. The market also experienced an increase in the number of large pavilions that were set up — such as those of Japan, France, China, Taiwan, Korea, Malaysia and Singapore — out of 21 total. The Canadian “pavilion” consisted of only a small stand with the logos of participating companies displayed on a board, but some Canadian distributors, such as 9 Story, exhibited with their own booths. According to Andrew Haber of U.S.-based Alfred Haber Distribution, the increased presence of buyers at the ATF has reduced the need for time-consuming side trips to visit Asian clients in their offices either before or after the market. However, the region remains challenging, mainly due to the diversity in programming needs from one territory to the next. Budget limitations and the abundance of regionally produced content are also limiting factors to the success in licensing Western content in Asia as a whole. Additionally, the long flight and jetlag took a toll on several participants. Fortunately for all, though, there was plenty of free coffee on the market floor to keep everyone awake. Getting back to Yeow, she reported that the Leaders’ Summit, to be held before the opening of the market on November 28, “will focus on big data, a tool to gain understanding of audience behaviors and preferences. “As the first order of the day, Stephane Alpern, managing director of Kantar’s Futures division, will reveal insights at ‘The Future of Content’ invite-only breakfast networking session. This will lead into the opening session of the Leaders’ Summit conference, where Kantar will stage a two-part ‘Big Picture Panel’: ‘Marrying the Right Data with the Right Content,’ where Pablo Gomez, regional head of Kantar’s Milward Brown Division, will reveal insight on the right data- and-content combinations for successful brand strategies,” Yeow explained. The second panel will be “Is Advertising Dying?,” a discussion on whether content is the best way for brands to connect with consumers. Panelists include Huawei’s Paul Michael Scanlan, Familia Group’s Alexander Shulgin, and Amazon’s James Farrell. “Alongside the conference sessions,” Yeow pointed out, “networking breakfasts will see variouswell-establishedmarket researchagencies release their latest findings about Asia’s content market. This includes the latest statistics on the future of entertainment, the OTT landscape in Asia and the emerging Indonesian market.” This year, the ATF is launching a new ATF Animation Pitch with India’s Green Gold Animation, with the tagline, “Think. Believe. Dream. And finally... Dare.” The winner will receive a U.S.$19,000 prize from Green Gold Animation, comprised of a U.S.$2,500 cash award and a consultancy package worth U.S.$16,500 that is tailor made to help the winner to develop a presentation ready to be pitched to broadcasters. The traditional ATF Formats Pitch will return for a second edition, backed by All3media International. As part of the concurrent Singapore Media Festival, the ATF chose Indonesia as the Country of Focus. “With a population of over 263 million, it has been the new star of 2017,” said Yeow. “The potential is immense, [especially] seeing how smart phone usage in Indonesia is predicted to skyrocket from 55 million in 2015 to 92 million in 2019, and multiscreen users in the country are registering over 23 percent more media time than their counterparts in APAC. “In line with this, ATF 2017 will host a networking breakfast, “Spotlight on Indonesia 2017,” where a global market intelligence firm will share its latest data on Indonesia’s TVmarket, guiding international businesses keen to establish a strong foothold in the country,” Yeow (pictured below) concluded. (Continued from Cover) The exhibition floor at Asia TV Forum 2016 Budget limitations and the abundance of regionally- produced content are limiting factors to the success in licensing Western content in Asia. November 2017