2-15 november C NTENTASIA 2015

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Malaysia’s Prodigee turbocharges Asian content agenda WebTVAsia drives digital growth

Malaysian media/entertainment group, Prodigee Media, has turbocharged its global content creation and distribution initiatives, aiming, among other things, to drive a billion views a month to its online entertainment platform WebTVAsia by this time next year. Story on page 5

Keshet boosts biz Pudney leads regional push out of

Keshet International is turbocharging its Asia business with a new office in Hong Kong and expanded regional ambi- tions driven on the ground by former Sparks|Eccho Group Asia head Gary Pudney. Story on page 6

Hopster ups Asia rights Bob the Builder, Thomas & Friends head for Asia

Kids online platform Hopster has acquired and Southeast Asia rights to kids properties Bob the Builder and Thomas & Friends. The new rights come as the U.K.- based global platform ramps up its Asia presence, supported on the ground by former BBC/Nickelodeon boss Christine Leo-McKerrow. Story on page 2 c ntentasia 2-15 november 2015 Page 2.

Palia to head Viacom18 Hopster ups Asia rights youth entertainment Bob the Builder, Thomas & Friends head for Asia

India’s Viacom18 has ap- Kids online platform Hopster has acquired India and pointed Ferzad Palia as Southeast Asia rights to classic kids properties Bob Bob the Builder the head of youth en- the Builder and Thomas & Friends. tertainment. The role The new rights come as the U.K.-based global involves MTV as well as platform ramps up its Asia presence, supported indie platform Pepsi MTV on the ground in Asia Pacific by former BBC/ Indies. Palia will continue Nickelodeon boss Christine Leo-McKerrow. Ferzad Palia as head of English en- The two new Hit Entertainment properties join tertainment, overseeing Vh1, Comedy Hopster’s Southeast Asia line up of 22 pre- Central and Colors Infinity. He reports to school titles, including Caspar Babypants, 64 group chief executive, Sudhanshu Vats. Zoo Lane, Toby’s Travelling Circus and Babar. Backyardigans, Moshi Monsters, Peg + Cat and Wonderballs were added in October and Novem- Grantchester tops ber, joined in December and January 2016 by Madeline, Monster Math Squad, Adven- ITV Choice Xmas bill tures of Paddington, SuperWhy, In the Night Garden, Teletubbies, Caillou U.K. entertainment service ITV Choice has and Franny’s Feet. put period detective series Grantchester, Hopster has more than 20,000 down- starring and loads in Southeast Asia and India since as unlikely partners, at the top of its Christ- launching in the region in June this year. mas line up for Asia and the Middle East. The first and exclusive broadcast is on Fri- day, 18 December. Winx Club arrives in

Rainbow’s Winx Club has rolled out across Thailand in a venture with free-TV satellite programmer, JKN Channel. The Thai debut begins with the fourth series of the ani- mated property. Winx Club, about a group of young fairies, airs in , , and Sin- gapore. The series targets girls from four to 10 years old. Robson Green (left) and James Norton

Where Asia’s best new animation starts. December 7-9. 2015 • Jeju, Out now!

ISSUE FIVE 2015 C NTENTASIA

Asia’s latest BFFs: PLUS: Bunim/Murray’s Gil Goldschein; The battle for India’s 4K & Blue Ant Media; advertising OTT heart and soul Sony Pictures & Nippon TV credibility in Asia – the scorecard

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Bloomberg rolls out StarHub rolls out the red carpet for HK’s TVB Asia biz site , take home special SG50 awards

Bloomberg launched the Asia edition of Hong Kong TV actors, Adam Cheng and BloombergBusiness.com on 2 November, Liza Wang, took home special commem- with a slate of features including break- orative SG50: Star of the Stars Awards in ing news and mobile alerts targetting Asia this year’s sixth annual StarHub TVB Award Pacific users. held in at the end of October. The company said the launch represent- StarHub said the awards were in recog- ed its commitment “to delivering more nition of the two artists “abilities to create localised, relevant content to today’s strong, lasting bonds with Singaporean au- global, mobile business news consumer diences throughout the past decades”. in international markets”. Wang was also crowned My Favourite The site will be driven by a newly formed TVB Actress, beating out Linda , regional team of editors, headed by Anjali Kristal Tin and . Her second Kapoor, based in Hong Kong. The team win was for My Favourite TVB Variety Show will draw content from Bloomberg’s 500 Host with co-hosts Adam Cheng and Jerry journalists across 24 Asia Pacific cities. Lamb in Sunday Songbird. Bloomberg data shows 3.6 million Ruco Chan won My Favourite TVB Ac- unique visitors to its digital properties in tor for the second consecutive year. Sci-fi September. drama, , about infa- mous Chinese Pirate , was awarded My Favourite TVB Drama. A total of 33 awards were presented in 17 Nat Geo green lights 12 categories, out of which 14 were open for public voting. Liza Wang clinched the highly coveted hours of archive shows My Favourite TVB Actress award

Nat Geo Wild International has green lit 12 hours of natural history content from fac- tual producer NHNZ’s Archive Unit. The new hours will be created from Korea’s SK Telecom goes after cable provider stock footage from NHNZ Moving Images SK, CJ to focus on their strengths, local observers say Archive, combined with footage from a various stock footage libraries around the South Korean mobile telco, SK Telecom, world. SK Telecom will hold a stake of just more is going after a significant stake in major The slate includes a second season of than 75% in the merged entity. cable channel provider CJ Hellovision. Wild 24, an original series from the Archive The acquisition is expected to be com- Weekend reports on the price the telco Unit following 24 hours in one geographi- plete by April 2016. is said to have offered vary widely, from cal location per episode, and the first sea- The Korea Herald said the move was KRW500 billion/US$438 million for a 30% son of an original series Extreme Animals: being seen by analysts “as part of an stake to KRW2 trillion/US$1.8 billion, ac- Babies (WT), which will countdown the effort from South Korea’s two major con- cording to different local reports. most extreme juvenile behaviour in the glomerates – SK Group and CJ Group – to Yonhap, quoting a company statement, animal kingdom. reshape their business portfolios to focus put the figure at KRW500 billion, and said The Archive Unit has had over 30 hours on their strengths”. the initial 30% stake would be followed by of production greenlit since launching in CJ’s mobile streaming platform, TVing, an additional 25.3%. mid-2014, including one-off specials and is said to have been excluded from the CJ Hellovision, which has more than four original series, in addition to contributing deal. Joongang Daily said TVing was likely million TV subscribers and about 2.4 million to several archive anthologies. to be transferred to CJ’s E&M division. high-speed broadband subs, and SK Tel- Wild 24 series two and Extreme Animals: Other weekend reports said this was the ecom’s SK Broadband Co are expected Babies (WT) will be distributed by Fox Inter- first time that a Korean telco has acquired to merge following the acquisition. national Channels Content Sales. a cable television company. c ntentasia 2-15 november 2015 Page 5.

Malaysia’s Prodigee turbocharges Asian content agenda Online platform WebTVAsia drives digital growth

Malaysian media/entertainment group, Prodigee Media, has turbocharged its global content creation and distribution initiatives, aiming, among other things, to drive a billion views a month to its online entertainment platform, WebTVAsia, by this time next year. Celebrating Prodigee’s 10th anniver- sary this year, group chief executive, Fred Chong, outlines a plan that will also double WebTV Asia’s channels from 500 to 1,000 over the next 12 months, roll out a WebTVAsia-branded mobile video platform, and align resources from across Asia to “help content creators in Asia to reach bigger audiences”. The slate of five MoUs signed in Kuala From left: Fred Chong, CEO, Prodigee Media and WebTVAsia; Liu Kailuo, CEO, Youku Heyi Films; Lumpur in October pair the 10-year-old Zhang Fengkui, CEO, Stellar Mega Picture; Kim Tai Sik, Filmline movie director; Penny Jiang, Production Director, Wanda Films Malaysian group with media companies and investors from China, Korea, the U.S. and France.​ ​ partnership between Prodigee and Chi- bine all the experience we have over Partners include Youku Tudou’s film na Media Capital’s Whaley Technologies the past 10 years. Something interesting unit Heyi Pictures, Stellar Mega Pictures to source, acquire, co-produce, loca- is happening and it’s a good time for us and Wanda Pictures, which are backing lise and distribute digital video content to go from being a successful Malaysian Chinese theatrical film, Teacher’s Diary globally on Whaley’s Smart TV platform media entertainment company to be- (ContentAsia Insider, 26 October 2015)​. as well as on international digital video coming a regional company”. The film is based on a popular Thai movie. platforms. Chong has his digital eye on major mar- Prodigee Media acquired remake rights The digital migration is a natural exten- kets such as China, Thailand, , Hong for China and brought in the three Chi- sion of Prodigee’s decade in music, mov- Kong and Vietnam, and plans to use his ex- nese co-production partners. Production ies and artist management. Theatrical perience with “Little Apple” to drive multi- is scheduled to begin after Chinese New titles include Wee Meng Chee’s Nasi Le- platform exposure across the region. Year in February 2016. mak 2.0 (2011), about a young chef who Prodigee has the rights to the “Little Ap- Four of the five agreements announced struggles to get his restaurant up and ple” song outside of China, and has cre- involve digital content.​ ​Prodigee/WebT- running; horror comedy Hantu Gangster ated multiple versions for markets such VAsia will work with multichannel net- (2012), also directed by Wee Meng Chee as Thailand, Hong Kong, Malaysia and works, StyleHaul and Dailymotion, as (better known as Namewee), about a Korea. Chong says fans have created well as Korean multi-channel network CJ thief who steals a haunted ring during more than 30,000 versions of their own on E&M’s DiaTV, to drive digital content cre- a gangster’s memorial ceremony; and YouTube. ation in Asia as well as global distribution.​ ​ drama Kara King (2013), about a Hong “We are joining forces to help content Among the projects under discussion is Kong singer whose wife mysteriously dis- creators in Asia reach bigger audiences,” the co-creation of a web series for Asia. appears. Chong says. The fourth MoU involves a strategic Chong says the latest initiatives “com- More on page 10

Wh atsYoursto r y c ntentasia 2-15 november 2015 Page 6.

Keshet turbocharges Asia biz Pudney leads regional push out of Hong Kong

Keshet International is turbo- ContentAsia Formats, published models and outlets are worth nothing. The charging its Asia business in September for this year’s more outlets the consumer has to watch with a new office in Hong ContentAsia Summit in Sin- shows the more opportunity there is for Kong and expanded re- gapore. great creators,” he ​said, highlighting Kes- gional ambitions driven Titles are Boom! (Cam- het’s commitment to great talent. on the ground by former bodia), kids’ talent show “Without great talent to develop shows Sparks|Eccho Group Asia Masterclass (Beijing Satellite for local markets it’s difficult to succeed,” head Gary Pudney. TV, China), MICE (Korea), Not he said. Pudney’s appointment as a Star Yet 5 (China), Prisoners “For us, Asia is a goldmine for content,” head of Asia was officially an- Gary Pudney of War (Korea, sold in February he said, mentioning China and India, nounced at the end of October 2014 but not yet on air), Rising Star among others. “China for us is a huge ho- by Keshet International chief executive, (CCTV, China) and Rising Star (RCTI, Indo- rizon,” he added. Alon Shtruzman, during his keynote at this nesia). Rising Star versions in China and Keshet formats have aired in six territo- year’s Casbaa convention in Hong Kong. ended in Q4 last year. The local ries and the company has active deals in Speaking ahead of Casbaa, Pudney version of Prisoners of War is in production; eight of 15 major Asia markets. said his immediate remit, from a geo- Wright said she was confident the show Existing business in Asia includes the re- graphical standpoint, “is to get a foothold would be on air in 2016. cent deal with China’s Huace-Croton Me- in as many markets at possible, including Two of the shows – Prisoners of War (Star dia to license Keshet International scripted Thailand, Indonesia, India, Vietnam and J Entertainment, Korea) and MICE (KBS, comedies Traffic Light and Loaded. the and to expand what’s Korea) – are drama formats, which puts In another recent deal, Keshet Studios, been happening in China, Korea and Keshet in the top three global companies Keshet International’s wholly owned U.S. ”. that have been successful with drama for- production entity, optioned Huace-Cro- Pudney, who made his first appearance mats into Asia. ton scripted property Dating Hunter for in the newly created role at Mipcom ​in Telemundo leads, with versions of Hid- U.S. audiences. In 2014, Keshet Interna- October​, reports directly to Shtruzman den Passion in the Philippines and Viet- tional acquired worldwide rights to Chi- and will work with ​Keshet International nam, and Missing in both India and Korea. nese talent show Not A Star Yet. sales director for Asia and Latin America, Sony Pictures Television has local versions Wright said the taste for talent shows – Kelly Wright. of sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond in In- both local versions and finished tape – was Additional hires will be made across dia and Mad About You in China. Disney far from waning. She also said celebrity Asia, Shtruzman said.​ ​ has Ugly Betty in Thailand, and NBCUniver- entertainment shows remained popular. “We’re looking to develop a fruitful, two- sal has sold rights to a local version of legal How do you make money? “You pro- way exchange of IP into and out of Asia,” drama Suits into Korea. duce great content and hope someone he added. Speaking about the role of content in a will buy it,” Shtruzman said in his keynote. Keshet had seven formats on air or fragmented environment, Shtruzman told​ commissioned in Asia in the 12 months Casbaa delegates​ that “content is king”.​ This article was first published online at to the endATF of ContentAsia August 2015, eMagazine_40x192mm according to - FA.pdf ​“ Without​ 1 21/10/15 great shows,14:31 all those business www.contentasia.tv on 27 October 2015.

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M 1 - 4 Dec 2015 Asia’s must-attend market Y Marina Bay Sands, Singapore for fresh content

CM

MY Keynote Speaker Held in conjunction with An event of Produced by D.J. Lee REGISTER CY President, EARLY & GET Media Contents Supported by In association with Held in CMY Business, THE BEST DEAL! CJ E&M www.asiatvforum.com K c ntentasia formats 2-15 november 2015 Page 7.

ContentAsia’s regular section, ContentAsia Formats, looks at formats and format development in Asia, including new seasons, series and trends and what these mean to channels, producers and the overall formats industry in the region.

MasterChef Asia

The finale of A+E Networks Asia’s Mas- terChef Asia, airs on Thursday, 10 Decem- ber, bringing to an end – for now – the Asian network’s biggest, boldest bet on local content. There’s no confirmation yet on season two. The first Asia version of the MasterChef format airs Thursdays at 9pm on female- focused entertainment channel, Lifetime. The series features 15 aspiring chefs from China, India, Taiwan, Vietnam, In- donesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and MasterChef Asia Singapore. The series, thought to have cost about version). We saw camaraderie develop Schofield. US$3 million, ran for 15 episodes (60 very quickly among our contestants, Prizes include the winner’s own cook- mins/90 mins). Judges are Susur which was wonderful to see.” book, US$50,000 cash, US$10,000 worth Lee, the “Father of Fusion” from Schofield was surprised to see of leisure experiences in Singapore, Hong Kong; 3-Michelin starred how many applicants preferred US$15,000 of home appliances and a chef Bruno Ménard; and Sin- cooking western food to Asian paid internship. gapore-born, Audra Morrice, a food during casting. “Their styles MasterChef Asia set new Lifetime rat- MasterChef Australia finalist. were rooted in classic French ings records for its premiere episode on

Building the set and equipping Michele Schofield techniques,” she says. 3 September. The multi-million dollar bet the kitchen and language differ- She also noticed that the on original production paid off best in the ence during casting were among the ‘younger’ generation cooks much more Philippines, where audiences were 850% greatest production challenges, says as a hobby and passion than as a ne- higher than the year-to-date prime-time Michele Schofield, A+E Networks Asia’s cessity to make dinner each night. “This channel average. Audiences in Singa- senior vice president, programming and meant they have studied a lot of the pore were 379% up, Malaysia came in at production. great chefs and taught themselves the 350% up and Thailand increased 170%.* The local version was modelled after foundations of French cuisine. I guess I MasterChef Asia was executive the style and tone of MasterChef Aus- wasn’t expecting this, going into casting. produced by Endemol Shine Asia’s tralia. “We wanted a sense of aspiration Meanwhile, other contestants brought Sharon Pereira and David McDonald and a passion for cooking,” Schofield to the MasterChef competition, flavours (MasterChef Australia) with a crew of says, adding: “It was never about con- unique to their home country and tried about 120 people in Singapore. testants aiming to disadvantage their fel- to elevate the dish. It was great to see low contestants (which you see in the U.S. the diversity of cooks and cuisine,” says c ntentasia FORMATS Be included. Contact Malena at [email protected]

* Source: Kantar (Urban Philippines, Singapore), Nielsen (Thailand True Panel), Kantar DTAM (Malaysia). Prime time 6pm to midnight, 1 Jan - 3 Sep 2015, C&S 16+ for urban PH, Astro 15+ for MY, Cable 15+ SG). c ntentasia inquotes 2-15 november 2015 Page 8.

Keertan Adyanthaya, EVP, Content & Communications, Hong Kong/Southeast Asia, Fox International Channels Asia, speaking at ContentAsia Summit 2015 in Singapore

On the future... On OTT & “I think 2016, especially rights challenges... with the way the televi- “I think both from the rights sellers’ sion world is transform- point of view as ing itself, is going to be well as from the an extremely challeng- buyers’ point of view, it’s a very, ing year.” very misunder- stood kind of On what he wants to see, place.” content-wise, out of Southeast “People almost Asia... sometimes seem to forget that there’s a long- Keertan Adyanthaya I also think that there’s a term impact to lot more fiction content, the decisions that drama content, scripted they’re taking to- On contrasts with India, where he was content that can be cre- day. There seems ated in our region, not just in the to be hunger for previously based... local languages but also in the the fast buck in In the pay-TV landscape in In- English language, or even formats terms of the way that emanate out of Asia and go that they’re sell- dia, we have a lot of platforms, out to the rest of the world.” ing those rights, in a lot of distribution partners, terms of the way and the importance of affiliates is not “I think we have the capabil- people are buy- ity here, we have the creative ing some of those as much as it is in Southeast Asia.” brilliance and the minds here rights.” who can come up with... out “In India, advertising is a huge barometer of suc- of box concepts which can cess, on whether you get advertising on your show connect in the rest of the or not, and that is the life and death of the show... world.” On Asia’s Next That makes shows in India very immediate. If there Top Model 4... is a problem where viewers are not latching on to a show it gets yanked off air very quickly, and we “For the fourth don’t see much of that happening here, and I think On Korea... that needs to change.” “I think Korea has fan- season, we asked tastic formats coming companies to tell On goals... out, that’s one market us how they would where movies and tele- “We need to be much more viewer-con- vision content have change, how they scious really, much more in tune with our really undergone a would adapt, viewers and understand what they want, why they want, and how they want it.” renaissance.” the format... And FremantleMedia “What we are going to be doing is do a lot more viewer re- search, understand the consumer much better, and create We are looking at came up with the what formats we can things that resonate with them, create pieces of content create out of Korea. best possible pitch, that will be iconic, and will stay behind with them.” That’s one of the key tasks Joon [Lee], who I succeeded, so they were cho- “We have a lot of channels, and what we need to do is consolidate them better. We need to is going to be doing out of sen.” Korea, and out of and pump more energy into them really, and refine China as well.” our content offerings on each of them so that they become stronger channels.” c ntentasia 2-15 november 2015 Page 9.

Who was at.... HBO Asia’s party in Hong Kong during Casbaa

Jonathan Spink,Yasmin Zahid, HBO Asia; Do- Jonathan Spink, HBO Asia; Zubin Gandevia, Joanne Tsai, Fox International Channels; Tham minic Leung and Janice Lee, PCCW nowTV Fox International Channels Asia Loke Kheng, PCCW nowTV; Jennifer Seeto

Jessy Tse, NBCUniversal; Magdalene Ew, HBO Asia; Steve Burton, HBO Asia; Derek Chang, Scripps Networks Interactive; Christine Fellowes, NBCUni- Malcolm Dudley-Smith, Warner Bros Television; Jeremy Carr, MobiMe Media versal; Avi Himatsinghani, Rewind Networks; Janine Stein, ContentAsia; Magdalene Ng, Discovery Networks Asia Pacific;

Jude Turcuato, Zakiah Mamie Leung, Tony McGinn, MCM Boldkhet, Supervi- Peter Yee, Baby Zarate, Evelina Ledesma, Emmylou Vil- Fox Interna- Malek, HBO PCCW nowTV Entertainment sion lasis, Cable Boss Philippines tional Channels Asia Group/Movideo Asia party pics brought to you by c ntentasia 2-15 november 2015 Page 10.

C NTENTASIA

Editorial Director Janine Stein Assistant Editor Malena Amzah [email protected] Research Manager CJ Yong [email protected] Editorial Research Aqilah Yunus [email protected] Digital Emily Seibel [email protected] Design Rae Yong

Clement Gosse, Dailymotion; Fred Chong, Prodi- China Media Capital BD Director Maggie Zhou; Associate Publisher gee Media/WebTVAsia Lee Hua Ling, CEO Prodigee Media China (Americas, Europe) and VP, www.contentasia.tvInternational Business Development From page 5: WebTVAsia Much of this will be brand sup- Leah Gordon These new fan bases open ported. Chong says less than [email protected] up infinite possibilities, he 10% of brands’ budgets right Sales and Marketing (Asia) adds. now are invested in cre- Masliana Masron [email protected] “The trend now in China ators. and many parts of the “We want to grow that,” To receive your regular free copy world is that successful IP – he says, adding that the of ContentAsia, web series, animated series, only reason brands will in- please email comedy online – builds a fan vest more is if content quality [email protected] base that can be turned into a improves.” Phil Kitcher, StyleHaul feature film... That’s the path that “We are content producers, Published fortnightly by: we want to create. They are all intercon- that’s what we do best,” he says. Pencil Media Pte Ltd nected.” “On one hand, we have the web and 730A Geylang Road His plan for WebTVAsia is a premium the online platform producers and on Singapore 389641 platform – “a multi platform business rath- the other we have the biggest movie Tel: +65 6846-5985 contentasia.tv er than a multi-channel business – that companies in China and we are come will both create and provide a home for together around interesting content,” Copyright 2015 Pencil Media Pte premium content from Asia. Chong says. Ltd. All Rights Reserved.