countryprofiles
Japanese singer and actor, Tomohisa Yamashita, in The Head
Most important is not to treat data as a silver bullet for everything... there are many factors that affect the way we curate. But, yes, all in all, data does affect what we decide to produce and what we acquire.”
“I won’t say opportunistic, although to a certain extent it could be seen
Magdalene Ew, Head of Content – Entertainment, WarnerMedia Entertainment Networks, Asia Pacific
to create content.
that way... With The Head, it was good timing, the right place at the right time. The conversation started really early on; I think we spoke about it a year and a half or close to two years in advance. And it took a long time. At the time, we had worked out our timelines and our plan for the year, and there was a void for that particular month for a particular show. “The Head has a great cast; [Japanese idol] Tomo is very popular in Asia and English-language content can travel as well in Asia. On the week The Head launched on HBO Go, the series rated number one. “So we look forward to more co-productions. We’re open to any ideas. Nothing stops us from working with anyone internationally, and we might work with HBO networks in the U.S., Latin America or Europe “With streaming services these days, consumers are used to shows that are not just in English. Most languages travel, as long as you find the right story.
term partnerships. So for Red channel, our partner is Mei Ah. They work closely with us to acquire all the content from around the region. We
“The beauty of The Head is, besides the cast, the story itself. It’s a sixparter, so it’s very easy watching.
haven’t so far seen any challenges or any issues. The brand helps as
“We want to make sure we have a mix of different kinds of original
well. And I think distributors do not want to put all their eggs into one
production or co-production, be it in Chinese or Bahasa or Thai or even
basket. They want to be able to have their content on all the various
remakes, like Miss S, a 30-parter in Chinese. [Miss S is a Chinese adap-
platforms in Asia. So far, we don’t see potential problems.”
tation of Australian drama, Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, which is currently on Netflix].
What about co-productions, like The Head with The MediaPro Studio. Are these global partnerships and investments part of a structured agenda to be involved in international co-production or is it just opportunistic, as and when they come up?
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“Miss S is in 30 episodes, there are 15 cases/15 stories, each solved within two episodes. You can watch it in isolation, two episodes each time. “We want to try different formulas for original production and co-pro so that we can see what works and what doesn’t work.”
contentasia december 2020