MUMBAI: As $256.28 million were exchanged, the 15th edition of the Asia TV Forum & Market (ATF) and 4th edition of ScreenSingapore, Asia’s leading television and film event, came to an astounding end.
The three-day market saw a record number of attendance and a slew of deals secured and partnerships forged from 10 to 12 December at the Marina Bay Sands Convention Centre.
Reed Exhibitions senior project director Yeow Hui Leng expressed delight at this year’s run and said, “This has been our most successful edition of ATF and ScreenSingapore to-date, and aligns with Asia’s growing importance in the global entertainment content landscape. ATF and ScreenSingapore is designed as an integrated market to provide a platform for industry players to trade and network, as well as to highlight opportunities in the rapidly growing Asian market. The positive feedback, record number of deals and attendance are testament to ATF and ScreenSingapore’s standing as a leading content market in Asia.”
Since its integration in 2012, ATF and ScreenSingapore enjoyed consecutive year-on-year participation growth, attesting to the industry’s validation of the event as a mainstay on the global content market calendar. The attendance at this year’s market jumped 10 per cent to 4,836 participants, with some 1,281 companies from 60 countries. This broke the previous record high of 4,385 attendees and 1,179 companies in 2013.
Zense Entertainment (Thailand) CEO Varavuth Jentanakul, who is a first-time buyer at the event shared, “At ATF we experienced the energy and exposure of a truly international content market. We are closing a new package deal with Endemol, which include two new great shows Your Face Sounds Familiar to be on air on Channel 7 later next year, and Singer Takes it All. We are also exploring the possibility of acquiring a large-scale format from Shine.”
Exhibitors on the market floor unanimously agreed that ATF and ScreenSingapore is a must- visit platform for sellers looking to the Asian markets.
There were various key announcements made at the market floor such as that of a $100 million media fund launched by Nasdaq-listed Bona Film Group, Singapore private equity investment firm Tembusu Partners and local media entrepreneur Calvin Cheng. The Singapore-based fund targets China’s media and entertainment industry, which is forecast to become the second largest in the world, behind only the US, by 2018.
Bomanbridge Media CEO Sonia Fleck reinforced the event’s relevance to industry players, “We’ve come into ATF closing several major deals in the region for hundreds of hours of programme.” Some of these deals include the sale of It Only Hurts When I Laugh and Life’s Funniest Moments to TV3 Mediawork (New Zealand); Animal Atlas to Thai Public Broadcasting Service (Thailand) and Superbodies to Korean Broadcasting System. Bomanbridge also partnered with leading distributor Banijay International to sell two reality series, Pound Pups to Dog Stars and Village Vets to TrueVisions (Thailand).
Several Asian networks had purchased formats from various international sellers. This includes sales by US studio Electus to VTV in Vietnam, which is set to air a local version of its format Bet on Your Baby while China’s Dragon TV has re-commissioned the studio’s Fashion Star format. Keshet International’s spy drama MICE (stands for Money, Ideology, Coercion and Ego; and also known as The Gordin Cell) is to be remade in Korea by Korean Broadcasting System (KBS), and due to air in early 2015.
Some of the other announcements made at the market include:
- A series of creative alliances forged with the Southeast Asian Audio-Visual Association (SAAVA), namely a collaboration with Australia-based crowd-funding portal Pozible and an alliance with the Motion Picture Association of Cambodia (MPAC);
- Jack Neo’s Long Long Time Ago, a new two-part movie scheduled for release in 2015 as part of Singapore’s 50th birthday celebrations;
- A new 24/7 kids and family television channel by DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc, set to launch in the second half of 2015 in 19 Asian countries;
- Fuji Television to launch full-scale internet and cable video-on-demand (VOD) distribution in Singapore through StarHub TV in the first half of 2015, delivering dramas such as Nobunaga Concerto and Dear Sister; and
- Strategic cooperation between FOX International Channels (FIC) and Tencent for over 300 hours of programming and documentaries from National Geographic Channel (NGC) documentaries to be made available online in China through Tencent in 2015. The two will also co-produce China-focused programmes.
This year, the events were also part of the inaugural Singapore Media Festival, which enabled attendees to participate in an expanded suite of activities. Commenting on this, Media Development Authority of Singapore industry operations director Joachim Ng said: “We are encouraged by the many meaningful partnerships forged and vibrant exchange of ideas at the inaugural Singapore Media Festival. It also gave us the opportunity to showcase the best of the region’s film and television content as well as to celebrate its talent. We are confident that future editions of the festival will continue to serve as a platform of choice in Asia for media companies and professionals.”
Some of the ATF and ScreenSingapore’s event highlights include MIPACADEMY and Animation Lab – continued to be well-received in their second year. The MIPACADEMY sessions were led by industry veterans such as A2G Studio (France) founder and CEO Alexis De Gemini, Small World International Format Television (USA) president Tim Crescenti, tvN producer/director Park Joon Hwa, CJ E&M (South Korea), long-running Korean variety TV show ‘Infinite Challenge’ producer Kim Tae-ho, YouTube sensation comedy duo, Andrew and David Fung of FungBrosComedy, and the Twitter APAC TV Team.
