ContentAsia September 2023

The Meaning of Life

Who hasn’t, at some point in the last year or so, sat themselves down and asked, What am I doing here? Where am I going with this? Is my purpose? Why? Is this how I want to be spending my precious life? Is there value here – for me and others? If I were to write a different story, what might that look like? And so we come to the ContentAsia Summit. Against the current backdrop, one theme popped: The Meaning of Life... and now what? This year’s agenda explores this and other questions the industry is (or we think should be) asking in navigating the path of a living, breathing, thriving community, avoiding the dry bones scattered over a scorched earth that has already claimed the lives of… actually, let’s not go there.

We are, instead, focusing on... finding meaning in current reality; how the industry in Asia is dealing with the crash of inflated streaming expectations; and how platform leaders are thinking about the latest environment. We look at the companies that continue to believe that Asian stories add value; at relationships and projects that are working and the people behind them; at storytelling trends and influences in Asia; at content funding backing new development, production and co-production; and at the digital-era resources that enable producers and platforms to make the most effective decisions possible.

There’s also the fourth annual ContentAsia Awards on Thursday, 24 August, which we started during the pandemic as a fun thing for Facebook Live and grew spectacularly from there. This year’s entries come from 12 countries: Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Mainland China, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Taiwan. Topics ranged wide: love, death, revenge, retribution, religion, reincarnation, comedy, cruelty... and so much more. Is there a particular meaning in all this? Hell, yes. Asia’s content community, for all that may not be happening as many wish it would, is living its most productive – and maybe even its best – life yet.

4

And the Nominees are... 6

10 Different Strokes

Executive producer Nitipat “Earn” Uahwatanasakul is pushing for a new type of Thai storytelling. “We have the potential to do different and more challenging shows,” he says.

12 Reality check

Taiwanese filmmaker Patrick Mao Huang on using XR to tell stories.

In the pink

Western demand for Asian LGBTQ+/BL content is soaring, says Taipei-based streaming platform GagaOOLala, which reports that 65% of its three million subs are now outside of Asia and is ramping up Originals to ride demand.

Truth in fiction

Some truths, says veteran Indian filmmaker Hansal Mehta, are best told through fiction. Now at the height of popularity, he speaks about Scoop, Scam and what attracts him to stories. 14

A Bloody Disgrace

Mediacorp CNA documentary, My Stolen Chinese Father, is the story of three people living in the aftermath of Britain’s decision, suddenly and secretly, to deport Chinese merchant seamen to Singapore and China after World War II

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16 Formats Outlook

Song-based titles, game shows and drama series made up 64% of formats in Asia in 1H 2023, ContentAsia’s latest Formats Outlook shows

26 Sustainable Production

Sustainable TV & film production processes are gaining ground in Asia... slowly.

Editorial Director Janine Stein janine@contentasia.tv

Assistant Editor Malena Amzah malena@contentasia.tv

Events Manager CJ Yong cj@contentasia.tv

ContentAsia Awards

Heather Berger heather@contentasia.tv

Design Rae Yong Research Rhealyn Rigodon iyah@contentasia.tv

Associate Publisher (Americas, Europe) and VP, International Business Development

Leah Gordon leah@contentasia.tv

Sales and Marketing (Asia) Masliana Masron mas@contentasia.tv

What is ContentAsia?

ContentAsia is an Asia-based multi-platform information resource that refines today’s info-deluge into usable, digestible and reliable intelligence about video content creation, funding, financing, licensing, & distribution across the Asia-Pacific region.

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what’s inside...

Best Kids TV Programme in Asia

• Lamput Meets Tuzki

• Legenda Puteri Qaseh

• Mr. Midnight: Beware The Monsters

• Senduk Swap

• Titoo: Purani Almari & Magical Wheel

The Nominees Are... *

Best Asian Original Game Show

• Everybody, Sing! Season 2

• That Free Money Show

• SGD10000

• Super Trio – Ladies First Special

• Uprising Kitchen

Best Factual Programme made in Asia for Multiple Asian and/or International market

• The Exiles

• The Forever Walk: China

• The Mark of Empire: Kingdoms of the East

• Thailand’s Unlikely Scrabble Rebels

• Uptown Otters

Best Factual Programme made in Asia for a Single Asia market

• Legends of the Ramayana with Amish

• Majalah 3: Misi Kembalikan Kuasa Kenyir

• Money Mafia Season 3

• Third Rail – Behind The Scenes Special

• Secrets of The Kohinoor

Best Factual Entertainment Programme Made in Asia for International/Regional Markets

• Don’t Hesitate to Emulate!

• Food Tales

• Guru Coffee Tour

• LOVE by A.I.

• Office Romance

Best Current Affairs Programme for a Single Asian Market

• 119 Jam Menuju Ke Putrajaya

• 3 Miti News (ข่าว 3 มิติ)

• Gaganyaan – Bharat Ki Antariksh Udaan

• News Magazine: Girl In Coffin?

• Tuesday Report: Unusual Confessions

Best Current Affairs Programme Made in Asia for Regional Asia and/or International Markets

• The Atom Araullo Specials: Mata sa Dilim (Eye in the Dark)

• Bali Bombing – The Untold Story

Best Asian Talk Show

• Hear U Out S3

• Next to Neelofa Season 2

• Point of View

• With Love, Becks

• The Zoe and Liang Show

Best Asian Comedy

• Debunk

• The Jennie Show

• Kaki Bola (Futsal Fan)

• Lipgloss Spy (สายลับลิปก ลอส / Sailub Lipgloss)

• Palatao Perdana

Deepavali Galatta

• SNL Korea Season 3

• Catching a Scammer (Singapore Serial Swindler)

• Connected with Divya Gopalan

• No Poverty Land II – A Treasure Trove

Best Factual Entertainment Programme for a Single Market in Asia

• The Art Scene – The Art of Cuisine

• Expedition Borderlands with Levison Wood and Ash Bhardwaj

• Food Affair with Mark Wiens

• Hunt for the Indian Mujahideen

• Taste Of Satisfaction

Best Original Song for an Asian TV Programme or Movie

• I Still Miss You (ฉันยังคิดถึง) – OST. Spirits of the Mekong River (ภูตแม่น้ำาโขง)

• I Think of You (อาทิตย์รำาพัน จันทร์รำาพึง) – OST. The Kinnaree Conspiracy (ลายกินรี)

• It’s You (คือเธอ) – OST. Bad Romeo (คือเธอ)

• Khanti by Rossa – OST Bidadari Bermata Bening

• Rasa Yang Hilang by Heidimoru – OST Hilang

Best Short-form Drama Series Made in Asia

• A Couple of Bros (Downstairs S3)

• Dare Forward

• Give Me Back My Nudes

• Mr Zhou Ghost Stories@Job Haunting II

• Solidarity

Best Sound Design for an Asian TV Programme/Series

• Fix My Life

• Katarsis

• Legacy

• Mr Zhou Ghost Stories@Job Haunting II

• UMG (Unidentified Mysterious Girlfriend)

Best Asian Feature Film/Telemovie

• An Inconvenient Love

• Lebai Sampan

• Silent Walls – 2023 Telemovie

• Silent Walls – 1938 Telemovie

• Sekolah Sampah

Best Asian Drama for a Regional and/or International Market

• Atom’s Last Shot

• Decoy

• Legacy

• Rebooting

• Why Didn’t I Tell You A Million Times?

Best Asian Drama for a Single Market in Asia

• Dirty Linen

• One Cent Thief

• The Patient

• Rebooting

• Serigala Terakhir 2

Best Director of a Scripted TV Programme

• Itaru Mizuno for Rebooting

Best TV Format Adaptation (Unscripted) in Asia

• Dancing With Myself Vietnam

• Indian Idol 13

• On The Red Dot: Old Enough

• The Profit Mongolia

• Top Chef Thailand

Best TV Format Adaptation (Scripted) in Asia

• 23:23

• Bad Guys

• Flower of Evil (Philippines)

• Liar (Malaysia)

• She Was Pretty (Malaysia)

Best LGBTQ+ Programme Made in Asia

• The Eclipse

• Moonlight Chicken

• Never Let Me Go

• The Root (

• Triage The Series

/ Rark Kaew)

• Ampaiporn Jitmaingong for Bad Romeo (คือเธอ)

• Sivaroj Kongsakul for 23:23

• Sidharta Tata for Pertaruhan The Series

• Wang Wei for Legacy

• Qin Lan as Yi Zhongling in Legacy

• Tanivu Yatauyungana (Francesca Gao) as Kaili Qin in The Amazing Grace of Sigma

Best Supporting Actress in a TV Programme/Series

• Angel Chiang as Chung Ka-kei in The Beauty Of War

• Samantha Ko as Youyun Zhan in The Amazing Grace of Sigma

• Dhivyah Raveen as Malar in Naam S2

• Yu-Ping Wang as Lianxin Lee in The Amazing Grace of Sigma

• Michelle Wong as Chien in After Dark S2

• Xiang Yun as Wang Jin Hui in Your World in Mine

Best Male Lead in a TV Programme/ Series Made in Asia

• Meng Po Fu 傅孟柏 as Ming Jie Zhang in Taiwan Crime Stories

• Heo Sung-tae as No Sang-cheon in Decoy

• Frederick Lee 李銘忠 as Chang Rong Shen in Taiwan Crime Stories

• Po Chieh Wang 王柏傑 as Po Sheng Lee/ Tsung Yu Yeh in Taiwan Crime Stories

• Shukri Yahaya as Syed Azril in Andai Itu Takdirnya

• Nie Yuan as Xi Weian in Legacy

* Nominees are listed in alphabetical order by programme or family name; where judges scores are tied, both titles are included in the nominations. The full list of nominees and companies/broadcasters is at contentasiaawards.com/and-the-nominees-are/

In the pink

Western demand for Asian LGBTQ+/BL content is soaring, says Taipei-based GagaOOLala, which reports that 65% of its 3m subs are now outside of Asia and is ramping up Originals to ride demand.

In GMMTV’s Moonlight Chicken, love and chaos plays out against the backdrop of a popular chicken and rice shop while new definitions of family and social norms are formed. TV Thunder’s Triage The Series is a fantasy medical drama exploring the meaning and interconnection of life, fate and love. BEC World’s The Root (รากแก้ว Rark Kaew), from Thai production house Change2561, explores the struggle of love battered by status and socio-economic inequality.

There are others. From the Philippines, ABS-CBN Entertainment’s GL (girls love) series, Sleep With Me, is about how interabled queer individuals navigate life in a society tha makes them feel like outcasts. Out of Hong Kong, not traditionally a bastion of gay-anything, leading broadcaster Television Broadcasts Ltd’s (TVB), reality dating show, Boyscation, hosted by Vinci Wong, features 10 male contestants who hope to find true love.

The range is broad and the topics are, clearly, diverse. All are united in leading the latest groundswell of LGBTQ+ stories in Asia.

While Thailand remains in the lead in Asia in terms of output and mindspace, the divide is widening between TV production centres embracing diversity and those still hobbled by content codes that keep a tight lid on LGBTQ themes.

The ayes are gaining traction around the world.

Taipei-based LGBTQ+-focused streaming platform, GagaOOLala,

says the demand for Asian LGBTQ+ and Boy Love (BL) content has soared in Western markets.

About 65% of GagaOOLala’s approximately three million subscribers are now outside of Asia, GagaOOLala says, talking about the rising power of the “Western Pink Economy”.

The platform cites U.S.-based corporate advisory and asset management company, LGBT Capital, which estimates the global aggregated spending power of the LGBT consumer base is worth US$3.9 trillion a year from a 15+ LGBT population of about 371 million people globally. LGBT Capital estimates that almost 75 million –about 20% – are in mainland China. The company says Asia is fast developing, with estimated LGBT-GDP (nominal) now exceeding US$1.4 trillion.

Moonlight Chicken, GMMTV (main pic); Fragrance of the First Flower S1 (above); and Taiwan Equals Love (left)

“The LGBT population is generally accepted to account for 5%-10% of the total population, and with recent developments in particular, the LGBT Community is securing increased positive awareness and equality – with visibly increased LGBT consumer segment momentum and recognition as a result,” LGBT Capital says.

Global growth bodes well for GagaOOLala, which is part of a broader movement supporting LGBTQ issues and rights.

Launched in 2017 followed in 2020 with a global roll out, GagaOOLala says 36% of its subscribers are from the U.S., and nearly 20% are in Europe. The rest are from other parts of the Americas, Australia and New Zealand.

GagaOOLala founder and CEO, Jay Lin, couldn’t be happier.

“Our platform serves as a conduit for cross-cultural understanding and acceptance, and we are humbled to play a pivotal role in fostering inclusivity and diversity,” he says.

Earlier this year, GagaOOLala parent, Portico Media, launched artists agency Glocal Talents to produce local content targetting global audiences. The plan is to expand the ecosystem for mainstream LGBTQ+ entertainment, and to enlarge the share of content made in Asia.

Although tiny compared to global streaming giants, Lin says GagaOOLala’s niche is strong. LGBT-focused platforms in Europe and the U.S., are almost exclusively Western,” he points out. “There are few Asian titles, and if they appear, they are more Asian American or are from a Western or U.S. perspective.”

GagaOOLala originals are making their way onto other platforms, including, most recently, SBS in Australia.

“A greater focus on web-series and dramas rather than high volume

soaps has helped broaden interest in Asian content and make it more accessible to new audiences,” SBS programmers say.

SBS On Demand has acquired two GagaOOLala originals: season one of Fragrance of the First Flower, released in March 2023, and Taiwan Equals Love, a one-off documentary about Taiwan’s LGBTQI+ landscape. Taiwan Equals Love releases in Australia in 2024.

“Fragrance of the First Flower was a wonderful representation of a queer romance that spoke to the heart of our purpose as a network –to platform both local and global stories that resonate with Australians of all backgrounds and diversities,” say SBS On Demand & World Movies’ Alex Walkden and Haidee Ireland.

Greater international traction has encouraged GagaOOLala to boost production. Season two of lesbian IP, Fragrance of the First Flower, has started filming and is set to premiere globally in 2024.

Dating reality show, Boys Like Boys, debuts globally in October 2023. The series features eight men chosen from an open call in Oct/Nov last year. GagaOOLala says almost 1,000 applicants from 18 countries responded. Musical BL series, First Note of Love, begins filming in October 2023, with a target 2024 release. The series is a collaboration with Thai partners and Warner Music Taiwan.

These build on GagaOOLala’s 60 originals, which stream with more than 1,600 titles acquired from around the world, from coming-of-age story Requiem, set in the 1600s against the backdrop of the witch trials, and Mediterranean short A King, Gazing at the Sea to K-queer film, Fifth Season and Chinese/Spanish collaboration Sunken Plum, about a transgender Chinese woman who returns to her village after her mother dies.

A Bloody Disgrace

Mediacorp CNA’s My Stolen Chinese Father: Victims of U.K.’s Racist Past is the story of three people living in the aftermath of Britain’s decision, suddenly and secretly, to deport Chinese merchant seamen to Singapore and China after World War II.

The Exiles tells a crushingly inhumane story of regular families torn apart and lives ruined, tragedy spread across generations and continents by British betrayal and cruelty. For Peter Foo, living with the consequences of Britain’s racist past, the situation “is a bloody disgrace”.

“This country accepted that it did happen, but there are no apologies for any of us,” Foo tells filmmaker Tom St John Gray in The Exiles’ episode, My Stolen Chinese Father: Victims of U.K.’s Racist Past, nominated in the ContentAsia Awards 2023 category for Best Factual Programme for multiple markets.

The episode – one of two that make up The Exiles, a series produced for Singapore’s CNA/Mediacorp – has its roots in a newspaper article on the plight of Chinese seamen at the end of World War II.

After years of loyal wartime service, the seamen were suddenly and secretly deported from their homes in Liverpool, and shipped to Singapore and China. Their British wives and children were left without explanation or information.

Decades later, declassified documents from the U.K. National Archives revealed the full extent of what the British government of the day had done. The revelation, St John Gray says, “was no comfort to the women who went to their graves believing they’d been deserted, or the heartbroken children who grew up and grew old thinking their fathers had abandoned them”.

“In the U.K., veterans are revered for their wartime courage and sacrifice but here was a group of Chinese seamen who had faced the horrors

of the Battle of the Atlantic, only to be neglected by the very country they were seeking to protect. Why is this story known to only a very small group of people? What impact did these actions have on the lives of the seamen, their wives and children?,” St John Gray says of the inspiration for the series, which he then took to CNA executive producer, Mark Pestana.

“As a documentary filmmaker, I was drawn to so many facets of these secret deportations. One aspect that played over my mind was the fate of these men after they were left stranded and penniless in Singapore and China. Where did these men disappear to? Did they start their lives over with new families in Singapore and China? Are their descendants today even aware of their plight?,” he says.

The story ticks multiple boxes for CNA, Singapore national broadcaster Mediacorp’s dedicated news brand, which serves domestic viewers as well as a wider regional/international audience.

“I was confident that these stories would resonate with audiences anywhere in the world; they have drama and intrigue, and offer viewers an insight to the contributions and struggles of Asians during the war years,” Pestana, CNA’s deputy chief editor, documentaries, says.

“This was a story that demanded our attention and challenged us to craft a series that would do justice to this shocking betrayal,” St John Gray adds.

The second episode of The Exiles is set in post-war Australia, and came from the initial research on the Liverpool deportations. “Apart from newspaper reports, court documents and some rare archival footage, there

We, as a team, have been able to help keep these stories alive and share them with a wider audience, so that we never forget what happened.”

Documentary

filmmaker, Tom St John Gray, The Exiles: My Stolen Chinese Father

Tom St John Gray

was relatively little information about these Asian deportations in the Australian public domain, so this felt like an equally important and timely story to tell,” St John Gray says.

Of the approx 400 kids abandoned in the U.K., The Exiles’ Liverpool episode focuses on Foo, whose mission is to tell as many people as he can about the deportations; Yvonne Foley, who has spent decades searching for clues of her missing father and continues the quest despite the disappointments; and Barbara Ong Janecek, who now lives in Canada.

The stories are woven together with a strong maritime theme, “to remind the audience of a sense of movement, displacement and fluidity,” St John Gray says. “In all the places we filmed [U.K., Canada, Singapore], we searched for interesting and relevant maritime locations – ferries and boats, lighthouses and beaches, abandoned docks and waterways.”

Crosby Beach, just outside of Liverpool, proved to be an ideal location. “It has a long secluded beach, dotted with hundreds of Anthony Gormley statues of men, who disappear and reappear as the tide changes. This became a potent metaphor for the stolen lives of these Chinese seamen, appearing and then disappearing from view.”

Janecek closes her contribution to the Liverpool episode walking along a cliff-top Chinese cemetery in Canada, remembering her lost father and her deceased mother. She gazes out to sea against a golden sunset, soaring birds and crashing waves, wondering aloud about her attachment to the ocean and her unknown father. “It’s such a puzzle, where you can’t find the pieces. You can’t complete the puzzle. I’m getting very old now. Will I know anything more before I die?,” she asks. It’s one of St John Gray’s favourite scenes.

That moment was hard won. Before approaching anyone, St John

Gray and his team – including researcher Junaini Johari and history consultant Dr Ernest Koh – immersed themselves in the circumstances to “ensure we were as knowledgeable as possible... As sensitive subject matter, it was important that we understood the many facets of these stories before we engaged surviving relatives,” he says.

“These stories of deportations from Liverpool and Australia are bound up in significant amounts of pain and trauma that still resonate today,” he adds. While not everyone wanted to appear on camera, they were willing to share information.

St John Gray says gathering the Australian profiles “was a very different affair”, leading the team through countless archives for named lists of the Chinese and Malay men who were deported from Australia to Singapore and Hong Kong, based purely on skin colour. Eventually, St John Gray connected with six family groups.

Asked what he most likes about the finished programme, which premiered in March this year, St John Gray says: “During the making of this series, it was clear that these stories were unknown to the wider public, and so the production team carried a collective sense of responsibility in making something that was genuine, sensitive and truthful.”

“It was editorially tough at times telling such a complex part of history, whilst also intertwining deeply personal stories and experiences,” St John Gray says. “These are stories from the dying embers of a colonial world, driven by elements of racism and discrimination, and it was important that we presented this uncomfortable past in a truthful and clearheaded way. I feel proud that we, as a team, have been able to help keep these stories alive and share them with a wider audience, so that we never forget what happened.” –

Janine Stein

Mark Pestana

Different strokes

Executive producer Nitipat “Earn” Uahwatanasakul is pushing for a new and different type of Thai storytelling. “We have the potential to do different and more challenging shows,” he told Sara Merican.

Thai producer Nitipat “Earn” Uahwatanasakul has a passion for stories with social commentary, and, seven years after his hit drama Wai Sab Saraek Kad (Broken, 2016/2019) was released, is taking a strong stand in support of Thai drama tackling more challenging themes.

Broken follows a psychologist dealing with troubled children from difficult backgrounds. “I studied urban and social planning and I wanted to tell a story about the situation in schools and about child development,” he says.

His new series, Of Love and Money, is in production for domestic free-TV network, Channel 3, and is scheduled to wrap by end2023. The coming-of-age story is about six graduates entering the workforce. Romance drama, Let’s Begin Again, is in post-production, with a release date in 2024.

Romance – a mainstay of his family-owned Master One VDO Production – is Uahwatanasakul’s nod to market reality. “It’s what the channel wants,” he says.

After more than a decade in the film business, primarily making family dramas and romantic comedies for Channel 3, Uahwatanasakul says the pull to switch genres is strong. “I want to make documentaries or stories closer to real life,” he says.

Uahwatanasakul is open about his frustration with the current state of Thai drama. “I think 80% of Thai dramas are the same. They have the same plot and style in dealing with family,” he says.

“My dramas have to compete with those from other countries too... consumers can watch series from any other platform, not just in the country... Thailand has the potential to do different, and more challenging shows,” he adds.

Creating shorter, faster-paced seasons of TV shows is one of his challenges. “We used to make TV series to last 20 or 24 hours per season, forming about 24 episodes,” Uahwatanasakul says. “Now, we have to make really short seasons and quickly get to the point, within six to 10 episodes.”

A business and info systems graduate with a master’s degree in urban and social planning and development, Uahwatanasakul joins a growing domestic industry call for government support/funding to help Thai TV producers to become more globally competitive.

Right now, this hero’s ‘supreme ordeal’ – that moment every great character faces and either overcomes, or doesn’t – involves politics. “The political situation in Thailand is not stable yet, which is a problem,” he says.

Reality check

Taiwanese producer, Patrick Mao Huang, is having an especially busy year, with several new ventures in XR filmmaking and a triumphant win at Cannes as co-producer of Tiger Stripes, which clinched the Grand Prize at the Critics’ Week.

Huang’s Colored, a co-production between his company Flash Forward Entertainment and France’s Novaya, was one of two immersive projects from Taiwan nominated in New Voices Competition at the Tribeca Film Festival’s immersive section in June. Both were highlighted for their creativity, technical capabilities and market potential.

Huang first heard a pitch for Colored from Novaya at Sunny Side of the Doc in 2021. Set in Alabama in the 1950s, the film is about 15-year-old Claudette Colvin, who refused to give up her seat to a white passenger. Exploring racial identity and ethnic issues, the film is supported by the Immersive Content Grant from the Taiwan Creative Content Agency (Taicca).

How does Augmented Reality (AR) enhance the story you were trying to tell with Colored? “Watching this story with the Microsoft HoloLens 2, you can see the image of the character immersed within real furniture and environment... You can sit down on a bench with the character and experience the same thing. Since the subject is about prejudice and discrimination, you can really feel how the character felt when a finger is pointed at you, telling you to stand up and go away. You are under the same pressure and situation as the character.”

What are some challenges that you faced while making Colored? “We used live characters. It is not animated, so we did volumetric scanning at a Taiwanese facility founded by Taicca. Colored is the biggest project for this lab so far. They have done a lot of music videos, commercials and some short XRs, but our film is more than 30 minutes and we have around 20 characters.

How do we control the time and budget to support this 20-character scan? There were many restrictions that I had not experienced before. For example, the fabric had to be a certain colour, if not it will affect the scanning. For the hairstyle, it had to be quite constrained and with the character’s movement, we could not cover any part of the body. We had about five days of rehearsals before we even went to the facility. We then also had to pre-select and process sequences and then upload the big file to the cloud, where our French post-production supervisor downloads them in France to work on.”

Colored premiered at the Pompidou Centre this year. What are the challenges you face in AR film exhibition? “Colored is a location-based experience. Not every festival or venue can afford it... You have to pay more for more than just one headset, and the Microsoft HoloLens headset is even more expensive than VR headsets. That’s a big challenge that we are facing now. I’m going to have an exhibition in Taiwan in a few months and we are still working out the budget.”

How do you choose which stories to produce? “The story has to have something new to me, yet something familiar. Tiger Stripes is a comingof-age story, which is familiar, but it has fantasy elements with the tiger symbols, which is something new... For Colored, the human rights story was a familiar aspect, but we used a new technology called volumetric filmmaking. That’s something I can explore, so I wanted to do that. I have another documentary project which also came from meetings at Sunny Side of the Doc. It is called Slave Island and it discusses the slavery system still operating in Indonesia on Sumba Island. The island is actually full of tourists. It doesn’t look like it, but on the other side of the mountain, there is a village where slavery is happening. There’s always something hidden and my job as a film producer is to discover the stories from this hidden world.” –

Sara Merican

“You feel how the character felt, when a finger is pointed at you” – Taiwan’s Patrick Mao Huang talks about using XR in a story of prejudice & discrimination.

Colored Tribeca Festival

Truth in fiction

Hansal Mehta has never been this popular. Vanita Kohli-Khandekar spoke to the veteran Indian filmmaker about balancing commerce and creativity, streaming, cinema, investing in writers and the truths that are best told through fiction.

Hansal Mehta and Mrunmayee Lagoo Waikul’s Scoop, based on Jigna Vora’s memoir Behind Bars in Byculla: My Days in Prison, is a fantastic watch. Vora, deputy bureau chief at The Asian Age (India), was wrongly implicated in the 2011 murder of Mid-Day crime reporter, Jyotirmoy Dey (or J Dey). She was released on bail after nine months in prison, and was acquitted in 2018.

Released on 2 June, Scoop spent eight weeks on Netflix’s Top 10 shows in India, gaining traction in South Asian markets and parts of the Middle East. Mehta’s earlier series, Scam 1992 (2020), based on the Harshad Mehta scam, helped revive the fortunes of the then struggling Indian streamer, SonyLIV.

The success of Scam 1992 and Scoop in South Asia has focused attention on Mehta’s brand of storytelling – dramatised contemporary history. In June this year, Netflix signed a multi-year series partnership with Mehta, who has been making TV shows and awardwinning films since the 1990s. But this is the first time his popularity has hit these levels

What do Scoop and Scam1992 mean for you? “They have given me the drive and motivation to keep making the stories I do.”

Isn’t balancing commerce and creativity the eternal struggle in cinema? “Every story, every film, has its audience. As a business we need to find and reach that audience and understand the film we are making, Whether I make a Faraaz (2022) or (Siddarth Anand’s) Pathaan (2023) the promotion is in the same way. The marketing teams, PR teams don’t really focus on content and use the content to reach the audience. We are in these templatised times. We have forgotten that we have an audience to reach.”

What is streaming doing to the creative and business of cinema?

“It is about people going to the cinema and cinema coming to you. The primary difference between the cinema-going experience and the streaming experience is experiential. Faraaz released and disappeared. But, on Netflix, it was on the top of the charts for nearly three weeks in India and other countries in Asia, and on the top 10 films worldwide for two consecutive weeks. It goes to show that there was an audience. We did not find it in theatrical. We found that audience on streaming.”

What attracts you to a story? “It is a very personal process. I read a story and see how compelling I find it emotionally. I like to reflect on it, wait before I respond to it. Some stories you like instanta-

Hansal Mehta

neously but it doesn’t stay with you. For me to want to make it, it has to stay with me. The characters have to stay with me. I need to find a compelling character before I find a compelling story. Lots of my good work has been character driven. For example, Shahid (2012) is about a lawyer, Shahid Azmi; Aligarh (2015) is about Professor Siras. Even Citylights (2014) is about Deepak Singh and his family. Scam 1992 was about Harshad Mehta and the whole family unit and about Sucheta Dalal (the journalist who broke the story). Those people, those characters were compelling. Ditto for Jagruti Pathak (the protagonist in Scoop). The entire ecosystem around her was compelling. For me, the plot comes after the characters.”

How much do you fictionalise? “There is an element of dramatisation, of fictionalisation. You take an informed decision. These decisions are taken jointly with the platform, the studios, the entire creative team. And also during the writing process, depending on how much liberty you are taking with the available material. How much you are compositing characters. I have to tell an engaging story. To tell that there is a certain path I have to choose... For example, Scoop is inspired by Jigna Vora’s book, but we realised that there is a story outside the book that we wanted to tell. In order to be able to tell that story, we had to rely on a lot of research, lots of things people told us. Then, based on what people told us and what we found during research, we realised that we had to dramatise and fictionalise some characters. But in all of that there is an authenticity, some truth hidden in that fiction.”

How difficult is it to adapt a book? Especially a business book...

“I find business very fascinating. Adapting Scam, Sucheta Dalal and Debashis Basu’s book, was quite a ride. To find the personal story in the middle of all that factual overload is a challenge and I enjoy it thoroughly. In a previous life I was part of the corporate grind, I worked in IT. That world fascinates me. Scam was just the beginning. Hopefully, I will get the opportunity to deep dive into this world further. No show has held my attention and captivated my imagination the way a show like Succession or the way Mad Men did many years ago. It deep dives into a world that seems boring and dry from outside. But when you deep dive you see another side.”

What were the tough parts or ‘aha’ moments in Scam and Scoop? “Every story you tell cuts into a part of you. It is a piece of your heart that you put out there. These are emotionally exacting stories. And they are also mentally stimulating but take away a lot of time. The big moment for me was when we found Harshad Mehta. It was when I found Pratik Gandhi (who played Harshad) and the first day I shot with him. In Scoop, it was getting (soap opera star) Karishma Tanna for that part. Within my circle, my people, there was lot of resistance to that choice. Why take someone from TV? Karishma Tanna and Harman Baweja (who plays a senior cop and pivotal character in Scoop), these were the two choices that were not difficult choices but when we look back they were inspired choices.”

How is Gandhi (based on Ramchandra Guha’s books and produced by Applause) shaping up? How tough is it? “It is a challenging task. But am enjoying it thoroughly. There is no more important time than now to tell Mahatma Gandhi’s story to the world. I find his character extremely compelling. Pratik is playing Gandhi. The casting, both Indian and international, is in process.”

If one compares Indian shows with Korean, Turkish, Nordic shows, where do you see India? Do you see India making it to the global stage?

“The big breakthrough is around the corner. Let us focus on India first. Streaming has yet to penetrate the entire length and breadth of the country the way TV did. If we succeed in a larger way in our own country, the international audience will embrace it. We cannot design our shows for the international audience, we need to tell authentic Indian stories.”

So the cross over, if any, has to happen on technology, production etc? “We are doing well there. We need to invest in writers, not only in paying them to write but helping them evolve as top-quality writers. Technologically, we have advanced a lot but creatively we need to grow further. And that can only happen with a healthier exchange among the community globally with workshops for writers and creators. Craft wise we can learn by exchange of knowledge globally.”

Hansal Mehta & Scoop star, Karishma Tanna

Formats Outlook: 1H 2023

Singing-based titles, game shows and drama series topped Asia’s formats in Asia, accounting for 64% titles from Jan-June 2023; India, Vietnam and Thailand remain Asia’s leading formats markets, with a combined share of 42%, ContentAsia’s

Formats Outlook for 1H 2023 shows.

Asian adaptations of 135 TV titles were aired or commissioned by broadcasters/platforms/companies in 16 countries in the first six months of this year, according to ContentAsia’s 1H 2023 Formats Outlook.

The ongoing research tracks formats adaptations commissioned/on air in 18 countries across the region, including Taiwan and Bangladesh, which reported no adaptations in the first half of this year.

Volumes were down 20% – 34 titles – this year compared to the first half of 2022, when we reported a total of 169 titles. But this year’s total is still seven (5%) higher than in the first half of 2021, which closed at 128 titles.

1H 2023 FORMATS BY GENRE....

Singing, game shows and scripted/drama formats continue to dominate. The three genres accounted for a combined share of 64% (85 titles) of the total 135 formats in Jan-June 2023. This has been consistent

since 2017. The average combined share was 67% for the first six months of every year from 2017 to 2022 (1H 2017: 65%, 1H 2018: 62%, 1H 2019: 71%, 1H 2020: 71%, 1H 2021: 68%, 1H 2022: 65%).

Notably game shows, which dominated the formats by genre charts for 1H 2017, 1H 2018, 1H 2019, 1H 2020, 1H 2021 and 1H 2022, have now dropped to second place, giving way to singing formats.

The latest report for 1H 2023 places singing formats at the top of the list with 29 titles (22%) recorded from 11 countries: Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.

The singing format driver was Vietnam, which accounted for six (3.4%)

Indonesia’s Next Top Model Cycle 3, Paramount Global Content Distribution / Net TV

Asia’s formats by country

Jan-June 2023

of the 29 titles. Five countries – India, China, Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong – skipped the genre entirely.

Game shows and scripted series ran neck and neck, with 28 titles (21%) each.

12 countries contributed to the game show count: China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.

Vietnam led game shows with seven (25%) of the 28 titles. Four countries had none: Singapore, Nepal, Korea and Cambodia.

10 countries embraced drama adaptations: China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The scripted format driver was India, with 13 (46%) of the 28 titles. Mongolia, Cambodia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Hong Kong had none.

Keep Running S11, SBS Korea / Zhejiang Television

Source: Distributors/rights holders, titles/seasons either on air or commissioned in JanJune 2023 by broadcasters/platforms/companies in 18 countries in Asia, as of July 2023, ContentAsia’s Formats Outlook 1H 2023

Cooking trailed with 15 titles (10%), reported from eight countries: India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Thailand, with five (33%) titles, topped the cooking formats count in the first six months of 2023.

The rest of the formats genres were reality (9), talent (8), dating (6), variety show (4), fashion/beauty (3), movie (3) and talkshow (2).

1H 2023 FORMATS BY COUNTRY....

Yet again, India, Vietnam and Thailand led Asia’s formats market in the first half of this year. The three markets accounted for a combined share of 47% (62 titles) of the total 135 shows commissioned/on air, according to ContentAsia’s latest Formats Outlook.

India, Vietnam and Thailand have been our regular top three/four on the formats by country charts for the past six years, with an average combined share of 48.5% (or average 104 titles) for the first six months in 2017-2022.

1H 2023: Asia’s formats by genre

Source: Distributors/rights holders, titles/seasons either on air or commissioned in Jan-June 2023 by broadcasters/platforms/companies in 18 countries in Asia, as of July 2023, ContentAsia’s Formats Outlook 1H 2023

Drag Race Philippines S2, World of wonder / HBO Go

Isteri Halal, ABS-CBN, Astro Malaysia

Aarya S3, Banijay Rights / Disney+ Hotstar

Source: Distributors/rights holders, titles/seasons either on air or commissioned in Jan-June 2023 by broadcasters/ platforms/companies in 18 countries in Asia, as of July 2023, ContentAsia’s Formats Outlook 1H 2023

1H 2023 FORMATS IN INDIA... India was Asia’s top formats market by volume in the first half of this year, with 24 titles/seasons. This is the third time since 2017 that India has topped the country charts. India reported 32 formats in 1H 2022 and 23 in 1H 2021.

Drama formats dominated as streaming platforms duel for dominance and producers rush to fast-track drama production to service demand. 13 of the 24 titles in the first half of this year were drama formats. In the first half of last year, drama made up 13 titles/seasons of the 31 total.

New titles this year included All3Media International’s Kafas for Sony Liv, produced by Applause Entertainment and Madiba Entertainment; season three of Banijay Rights’ crime/thriller Aarya, co-created by Ram Madhvani and Sandeep Modi; and two seasons of Paramount Global Content Distribution’s crime drama, Rana Naidu, for Netflix.

Unscripted/reality formats placed second with seven titles of the 24. These included Bigg Boss, an adaptation of Banijay Rights’ Big Brother,

in five languages on Colors, Asianet and Star Vijay as well as an OTT version on JioCinema.

The other formats were cooking (1), game (1), movie (1) and talent (1).

1H 2023 FORMATS IN VIETNAM... Vietnam, which ranked second for the past two years (1H 2021, 1H 2022), held onto the spot for the first half of 2023, with 21 titles (16% of 135 titles).

Game shows (also #1 in 1H 2022) were most popular. These included Japanese broadcaster TV Asahi’s game show, Hide and Seek with Drone, for HTV7; Lightning Quiz from Workpoint TV also for HTV7; and ITV Studios’ I Love My Country commissioned by Dong Tay Promotions Company.

Singing formats are also thriving in Vietnam, with six titles in the first half of this year. These included two versions of Banijay Rights’ Your Face Sounds Familiar. The kids version of Your Face Sounds Familiar S5 premiered in November 2022 and ran to the end of January this year Your

Source: Distributors/rights holders, titles/seasons either on air or commissioned in Jan-June 2023 by broadcasters/ platforms/companies in 18 countries in Asia, as of July 2023, ContentAsia’s Formats Outlook 1H 2023

Face Sounds Familiar S9 is scheduled to premiere in October this year. Vietnam also had three variety shows and two talent formats. The remaining three were dating, drama and fashion/beauty.

1H 2023 FORMATS IN THAILAND... Thailand was third behind India and Vietnam in the first half, with 17 titles (13% of 135 titles). Thailand also ranked third in 1H 2022 with 18 titles and in 1H 2021 with 15 titles. 15 of the 17 were split evenly between cooking, drama and game shows.

These included ITV Studios’ cooking competition, Hell’s Kitchen Thailand. The show, commissioned by Heliconia H Group, premieres in September this year on free-TV station, Channel 7. Heliconia also commissioned the 12th season of the local version of Fuji TV’s cook-off, Iron Chef Thailand; the series premiered on Channel 7 in February this year. Three of the five drama remakes in Thailand were from Korea’s CJ ENM – business/romcom Start-Up Thailand; fantasy/investigation 23:23

(the adaptation of Korean original Signal); and youth format, Thank You Teacher (the adaptation of Korean Black Dog). All three were for True ID/TrueVisions/True4U.

Game shows this year included Fremantle’s Family Feud Thailand for One31, Banijay Rights’ First and Last Thailand S5 for Workpoint TV, and NBCUniversal’s Hollywood Game Night Thailand S6 for Mono 29. The other two Thai formats were a dating title and a singing competition.

1H 2023 vs 1H 2022... 34 titles dropped off the face of Asia’s formats earth in the first six months of this year compared to last year. Vietnam and the Philippines dropped the most, with 10 titles each. India shed eight titles while Korea was down by seven and China by five.

Myanmar recorded the most add ons with five titles for the first half of 2023. The rest of the countries either remained the same or dropped/ added about one/two titles each. Taiwan and Bangladesh recorded none for the past three years (1H 2023, 1H 2022 and 1H 2021).

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Formats by genre

Myanmar 1H 2023

Formats by genre

Sri Lanka 1H 2023

Formats by genre

Korea 1H 2023

Formats by genre

Nepal 1H 2023

Green rooms

Avatar ’s eco-moments are legendary. Avengers: End Game made headlines for production sustainability. The Hobbit trilogy committed to sustainability from day one. Succession , The Gilded Age , The Man in the High Castle ... all part of a global movement towards sustainable TV and film production. Where is Asia on this journey? A new initiative by Canada’s Green Spark Group & India GreenSet plans to upsize the effort.

Where would you say Asia’s production industry is on the sustainability path right now? There is a growing awareness within the industry. Production houses are already taking the initiative to implement waste and plastic reduction in their production process. This is the easiest to implement and creates a virtuous cycle of use of food, scrap and reusables.

What can media companies do in the short term? The media industry can move towards adopting mitigation to reduce its impact on the environment. This can be achieved in various ways, like minimising waste in food, water and electricity; using more efficient and eco-friendly energy sources like LED; using bio-degradable/recyclable packaging for catering; recycling sets and costumes; reducing the use of plastic; sourcing air travel alternatives where feasible; using zoom for prep meetings; and collaborating with NGOs. All of these can be implemented with ease.

Where do TV producers typically begin with a sustainability initiative? The earlier producers start planning and integrating sustainability initiatives into their production process, the easier and more effective it will be. Producers have often started by looking at waste and implementing solutions at the end of the process. However, this does not achieve the transformation the industry needs. It is with planning and thinking about how to integrate solutions at the start that real results are achieved.

What would you say is the biggest challenge in making sustainability an essential part of production processes? The biggest challenge is a mindset shift. Everything follows from there. Any change that directly or indirectly impacts budgets becomes a hurdle in implementation.

This is why sustainability needs a corporate mandate so that it can be adopted across the value chain. In an industry with tough checks and balances for shoot and delivery processes, it is challenging for production houses to take on the additional task of implementing sustainable guidelines. The initial period requires adjustments. We believe that if corporations set the agenda for change in a phased manner, eventually, there will be no looking back. Who doesn’t want to work in a harmonious environment where people look out for each other, there is parity at work and a larger sense of mission?

What’s the danger of falling into the “greenwashing” trap? Crucially, all processes and commitments must be transparent, third-party assessed and grounded in science to avoid greenwashing.

How do you measure progress? You can’t manage what you don’t measure! Progress is being measured through the number of productions using free industry tools like Albert, by starting to track and measure key impact areas, sharing this data with production houses and big studios and developing case studies. We also start by measuring carbon emissions and this leads to insights into the consumption of material and fuel, how to plan for transportation, what to eat, etc. Progress for us would mean seeing more debates and discussions around sustainability.

Edited excerpts. The full interview is at www.contentasia.tv

India GreenSet founders, Anupama Mandloi (top); Sophy VSivaraman

BookingsNowOpen

Putting your brand & products in front of more buyers & decision makers in 22 Asia-Pacific markets. ContentAsia reaches 12,400+ executives in Asia across all platforms with a clear editorial focus on Asia, market developments, trends, influences & information that makes a difference.

Contact

Leah Gordon at leah@contentasia.tv (Americas, Europe, U.K.)

Masliana Masron at mas@contentasia.tv (Asia, Australia, Middle East)

CJ Yong at cj@contentasia.tv (China/Taiwan)

For editorial info, contact Malena Amzah at malena@contentasia.tv

All3Media International

5 Teck Lim Road, #03-00 Singapore 088383

T: +65 9858 6934

W: www.all3mediainternational.com

Social Links: @all3media_int

All3Media International is one of the leading independent distributors of television programming and formats in the UK.

All3Media International is the distribution arm of the All3Media group and manages a distribution catalogue spanning more than 30,000 hours of content across all genres.

Sponsor Spotlight

As well as one of Britain’s top-selling drama series Midsomer Murders, our quality content includes Fleabag, The Tourist, The English, The Traitors, Undercover Boss and some of televisions most beloved brands including Gordon Ramsay

Who’s who...

Sabrina Duguet

EVP, Asia Pacific (Pan-Asia, Formats for Australia and New Zealand)

E: sabrina.duguet@all3media.com

Jaenani Netra

VP Sales (India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal & Sri Lanka)

E: jaenani.netra@all3media.com

Ziran Tang (Tony)

VP Sales (China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan)

E: ziran.tang@all3media.com

Amanda Pe

Sales Executive (Brunei, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand & Vietnam)

E: amanda.pe@all3media.com

Astro Malaysia

All Asia Broadcast Centre Technology Park Malaysia

Bukit Jalil, 57000 Kuala Lumpur

T: +603 9543 6688

W: www.astro.com.my

Astro astroonline astromalaysia company/astro

Who’s who...

Euan Smith Group CEO

Agnes Rozario Director, Content

Astro Malaysia Holdings Berhad (Astro) is Malaysia’s leading content and entertainment company, serving 5.5 million homes or 69% of Malaysian TV households, 8,600 enterprises, 18 million weekly listeners across FM radio and online, 7.8 million digital monthly unique visitors and 3.3 million shoppers across its TV, radio, digital and commerce platforms. We serve Malaysians with 3 distinct services – Astro Pay-TV, NJOI Prepaid and sooka, our own OTT for the millennials; and Astro Fibre, our own broadband service, offers greater value with its content-broadband bundles. More than 860,000 homes are already streaming the best of home entertainment via our Hybrid 4K UHD Ultra Box and HD Ulti Box, which can

be self-installed and run on both satellite and broadband. Today, our customers enjoy streaming our local signatures, Astro Originals, live sports and the best global shows from Netflix, Disney+ Hotstar, HBO GO, iQIYI, TVBAnywhere+, beIN SPORTS CONNECT, BBC Player, Viu, ZEE5, WeTV and our own TV companion app Astro GO. Astro Radio, home to the country’s highest-rated radio brands across all key languages, and our digital brands including AWANI, SYOK, Gempak, Xuan and Astro Ulagam, connect Malaysians to content and stories that matter. Go Shop, our home shopping and commerce business, offers a fun and entertaining home and online shopping experience that suits the Malaysian lifestyle.

Raja

Jastina Raja Arshad Vice President, Head of Astro Shaw & Malay Nusantara Business

Sabrina Duguet Jaenani Netra

Ziran Tang (Tony) Amanda Pe

Euan Smith Agnes Rozario

Raja Jastina Raja Arshad

BEC World Public Company Limited

3199 Maleenont Tower Floor 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 30-34, Rama 4 Road, Klongton, Klongtoey, Bangkok 10110

Thailand

T: +662 262 3648

W: www.becworld.com

www.ch3plus.com/contentlicensing

E: inter-sales@becworld.com

CH3 Official

CH3 OTT

Ch3thailand

CH3Plus

Who’s who...

Ziraviss Vindhanapisuth (Tum) VP – International Business

Ratsarin Phaisantanamol (Jay) Senior Manager – International Business Account   Nantika Nuchpoom (Eve) Senior Manager –International Business Account

Kawalin Chantawatkul (Gift) Senior Manager – International Business Account

BEC World Public Company Limited, a leading media company, stands at the forefront of the entertainment industry, in the Thai-language television and feature film production, and worldwide digital distribution, and broadcasting, in Thailand for over 53 years.

BEC operates its Channel 3 DTTV and CH3Plus digital platform; and produces original content of various formats from news, variety shows to over 1,000 hours of wide-ranging slate of Thai dramas each year, with its renowned Thai celebrities, which are fast gaining international appeal and following.

The company’s vast library of Thai dramas, consists of more than 10,000 hours of programming which comprised of more than 4,000 individual television episodes. To further grow its library and businesses, it launched BEC STUDIO in 2021, to produce original content for its platforms and partners.

Who’s who...

Ofanny Choi

Chief Executive Officer

Annie Chan

Vice President, Sales & Business Development

Annie Lim

Executive Director, Sales & Marketing

Janice Lam

Celestial Tiger Entertainment

Suite 1603, 16/F, Kwun Tong Harbour Plaza, 182 Wai Yip Street, Kwun Tong, Hong Kong

T: +852 2239 6000

W: www.celestialtiger.com

https://www.linkedin.com/company/ celestial-tiger-entertainment-limited

Executive Director, Programming & Acquisitions

Celestial Tiger Entertainment (CTE) is a leading independent media company dedicated to entertaining audiences in Asia and beyond. The company creates and distributes branded pay television channels and digital services targeted at Asian consumers, including: CELESTIAL MOVIES, the premium first-run Chinese movie channel powered by exclusive output deals with top Hong Kong movie studios; CCM, the classic Chinese movie channel featuring masterpieces of Chinese cinema from the world-renowned Shaw Brothers Library; CM+, a channel featuring the latest Blockbusters and exclusive movies from across Asia in Singapore; MIAO MI, the Mandarin edutainment channel created for preschool kids; KIX, the ultimate destination for Asian action entertainment; and THRILL, Asia’s first regional horror, thriller and suspense movie channel. All of CTE’s channel brands are available as linear, on-demand and over-the-top services. CTE also produces original production for its bouquet of channels.

Ziraviss Vindhanapisuth Ratsarin Phaisantanamol

Nantika Nuchpoom Kawalin Chantawatkul

Ofanny Choi Annie Chan

Annie Lim Janice Lam

Iskandar Malaysia Studios

1, Persiaran Layar Perak, 79250, Iskandar Puteri, Johor Darul Takzim, Malaysia.

T: +607-560 1888

W: www.iskandarmalaysiastudios.com

https://www.facebook.com/IskandarMalaysiaStudios/

https://www.instagram.com/iskandar_ malaysia_studios/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/ iskandarmalaysiastudios/

Sponsor Spotlight

Who’s who...

Rashid Karim

CEO

Catherine Lee

Head of Business Development

Dave How Lead, Comms & Client Relations

Iskandar Malaysia Studios is a premier destination for filmed entertainment production in Southeast Asia. Our five stateof-the-art stages are large and versatile working spaces, and all include stage pits for water filming or dry use. Two 12,000 sq ft TV studios are fully HD-equipped with a total audience capacity of 1,200. In addition, all studios have easy access to a variety of production support facilities.

A range of interior and exterior tanks are available, including one of Southeast Asia’s largest interior tanks, located at Stage 5. The exterior Paddock Tank offers green screen capability.

Our mission at IMS is twofold: to serve as a preferred location for film and television productions from around the world, as well as to promote and foster the development of quality Malaysian screen content from domestic filmmakers and TV producers. With world-class facilities and convenient access to a range of stunning and diverse shooting locations, Iskandar Malaysia Studios can capably service all of your creative requirements.

Who’s who...

George Chien

Co-Founder, President, and CEO

E: George.Chien@KCGlobalMedia.com

Andy Kaplan

Co-Founder and Chairman

E: Andy.Kaplan@KCGlobalMedia.com

KC Global Media Asia

10 Changi Business Park Central 2

Hansapoint@CBP, #03-08

Singapore 486030

T: +65 6980 0210

E: help@KCGlobalMedia.com

W: www.KCGlobalMedia.com

kcglobalmedia

kcglobalmediasia

KC Global Media Entertainment LLC is a global multi-media company based in the United States. The brainchild of former Sony Executives Andy Kaplan and George Chien, KC Global Media Asia (KCGM Asia) is Asia’s leading entertainment hub through the production, distribution and programming of quality, ground-breaking content.

Backed by more than two decades of industry experience, KCGM Asia boasts an impressive portfolio of premium pay-TV channels in South-East Asia and Korea, including English-language general entertainment network AXN, anime channel Animax, South Korea’s ONE and Japanese entertainment channel GEM.

By combining award-winning and wellloved entertainment formats with extensive knowledge and insight of the Asia Pacific market, KCGM Asia is paving the way for a new standard of entertainment in Asia and beyond.

George Chien Andy Kaplan

Rashid Karim Catherine Lee

Dave How

1 Stars Avenue, Singapore 138507

T: +65 6333 3888

W: Mediacorp.sg

Facebook.com/mediacorp

Instagram.com/mediacorp

Tiktok.com/@mediacorp

Youtube.com/mediacorpsg

Who’s who...

Tham Loke Kheng

Chief Executive Officer

Virginia Lim

Chief Content Officer

Doreen Neo

Chief Talent Officer

Angeline Poh

Chief Customer and Corporate Development Officer

Mediacorp is Singapore’s national media network and largest content creator. Its purpose is to create engaging and trusted content, as well as to connect communities and inspire people. Mediacorp engages over three million people in Singapore daily across four languages on its digital platforms including mewatch, melisten and CNA.asia, six TV channels and 11 radio stations. Beyond Singapore, Mediacorp also has a growing international audience through CNA and content distributed across markets.

1-6-1 Higashi Shimbashi, Minato-ku Tokyo 105-7444

Japan

T: +81 3 6215 3036

W: https://www.ntv.co.jp/english/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/ nippon-tv/

Who’s who...

Ayako Tajima Senior Director

Moe Kanzaki Sales and Licensing

Itaru Mizuno Creative Director of Rebooting

Nippon TV is Japan’s leading multiplatform entertainment powerhouse and ratings champion broadcaster. Over 90% of its content IP is fully owned by Nippon TV and the company has been bringing its content to the international market in the form of anime, ready-made programs, formats, and co-production partnerships.

One of the biggest success is their hit drama series Mother which has achieved global success as the most exported scripted format out of Asia, with its sales to South Korea, Turkey, Ukraine, France, Thailand, China and Spain.

The company is also known for its show Old Enough!, now streaming on Netflix in over 190 countries, and BLOCK OUT, an action packed game show format that has been adapted in Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Spain, and Holland.

Rebooting

Ranked #1 on AVOD and SVOD in the January-March 2023 quarter, this is a phenomenal and somehow humorous story about a mundane woman who is about to reboot her banal life.

Asami Kondo, age 33, is single, lives with her parents, and works at the local city hall. Suddenly, she finds herself lying on an Ob-Gyn bed. Next to her are her parents, both young. Asami’s second go at life has just begun. Brace yourselves for this time leap human comedy that depicts bizarre daily occurrences at a spectacular scale.

Ayako Tajima Moe Kanzaki

Itaru Mizuno

Tham Loke Kheng Virginia Lim

Doreen Neo Angeline Poh

Sponsor Spotlight

Who’s who...

Avi Himatsinghani CEO

E: avi@rewindnetworks.com

Sandie Lee Executive Vice President

E: sandie@rewindnetworks.com

Rewind Networks Pte. Ltd.

21 Media Circle

#06-05, Infinite Studios

Singapore 138562

T: +65 6635 3982

E: info@rewindnetworks.com

W: http://www.rewindnetworks.com/ HITSTV HITSMOVIES HITSNOWTV

Warner Bros. Discovery

Solaris @ Fusionopolis

1 Fusionopolis Walk, #13-01

Singapore 138628

T: +65 6288 6303

W: www.wbd.com

https://www.linkedin.com/company/ warner-bros-discovery/

Social: @WBD

Rewind Networks, a Singapore-based multimedia branded entertainment company, is dedicated to providing the best pay-TV content to audiences in the Asia Pacific region. With extensive licensing agreements with renowned Hollywood and international studios, Rewind Networks offers a wide range of film and television’s finest programming.

HITS, launched in 2013 became the fastest growing basic general entertainment channel in Asia. The channel provides a curated selection of the best television shows from the past few decades in high definition including The Nanny, Mission Impossible and Charmed.

HITS MOVIES was introduced in 2018, featuring a hand-picked collection of the finest movies from pre-1960s to the early 2000s. Blockbusters such as Men In Black, Genghis Khan, Blade and Spiderman are staples on the channel.

Launched in February 2023, HITS NOW is the newest channel off the block, featuring top-rated drama series, exhilarating reality shows, entertainment news, and exciting game shows. HITS NOW presents current and trend-setting shows like America’s Got Talent, Top Chef, Project Runway, Entertainment Tonight and Celebrity Family Feud.

Who’s who...

James Gibbons

President and Managing Director – Western Pacific (China, Japan & ANZ)

Clement Schwebig

President and Managing Director – India, Southeast Asia & Korea

Warner Bros. Discovery (NASDAQ: WBD) is a leading global media and entertainment company that creates and distributes the world’s most differentiated and complete portfolio of content and brands across television, film and streaming. Available in more than 220 countries and territories and 50 languages, Warner Bros. Discovery inspires, informs and entertains audiences worldwide through its iconic global brands and products. These include: Discovery and discovery+, CNN International, DC, Eurosport, HBO, Max, HGTV, Food Network, TLC, Travel Channel, MotorTrend, Animal Planet, Warner Bros. Film Group, Warner Bros. Television Group, Warner Bros. Games, New Line Cinema, Cartoon Network, Cartoonito and others. In Asia Pacific, additional brands include Asia Food Network, Three, ThreeNow, Eden, HBO GO, POGO, Tabi Channel and Mondo TV.

Avi Himatsinghani Sandie Lee

James Gibbons Clement Schwebig