distributionupdate
Love Destiny 2, BEC World/ Channel 3 Thailand
Selling stakes Whatever else separates them, distributors are united in their experience that the demand for Asian content across platforms and genres is rising. On the eve of this year’s ATF market in Singapore, Malena Amzah spoke to companies around the world about what they’re seeing across Asia’s licensing & syndication market.
Not sure 19.2%
No 0%
Did demand for Asian content increase in 2023?
Demand for Asian content is on the rise across the region as programmers, broadcasters and platforms close out the year and build their line-ups for 2024, distributors told ContentAsia ahead of the 2023 ATF
Yes 80.8%
market in Singapore. Even as budgets shrink and selection criteria tighten, more than 80% of local and international distributors we spoke to in October/November 2023 reported rising demand for Asian content across platforms in Asia. This includes free-TV broadcasters across multiple markets as well
Source: Local/international content distributors, conducted in October/November 2023
as domestic, regional and global streaming/online services. Higher demand for Asian content is also emerging at platforms outside of Asia, led by Latin America, and followed by the U.S., Canada and Europe, and then by the Middle East, Africa and the U.K. Drama tops demand, with light and easy romcoms in the lead, followed by horror, BL (Boys Love)/LGBTQ, fantasy and animation. Predictably, K-drama of any type remains hugely popular, as does factual content that addresses sustainability, climate and wildlife topics. There is mixed response to investment in Asian originals, including pre-sales. Twelve of the 26 distributors we spoke to said they had no plans to invest in original Asian content, but were not ruling out future
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investment. Six were already investing in their own shows and the other eight were a hard no. Markets that gained profile through 2023 include Cambodia, Indonesia, Mongolia, Thailand, Taiwan, Korea, Japan and Singapore. This is playing out in different ways, and has as much to do with marketing strategy, resource and focus as it does with the appeal of the stars and the stories for sale. Free-TV remains strong in many Asian markets, where subscription
contentasia december 2023