After three very active journeys, ATF 2023 edition ends today with a special day: there are no conferences scheduled, but meetings will continue steadily till after midday. The outcome of the event is on the same way: Asia, and APAC in particular, are full of new content opportunities, but you need persistence and good decisions, good partnerships above all, must be taken.
Yesterday’s agenda was mainly focused on production: during “Hollywood Dealmaking & the Lessons Learned”, Georgina Gonzalez, director of Scripted Global Series at NBCUniversal Intl Studios, stated: ‘We mostly act like a traditional studio and can finance development or help with optioning material. But we can also do deficit financing as something is going into production and recoup afterward through sales’. About financial process into production, Mandy Chang, director of global documentaries at Fremantle (UK), said: ‘You have to choose between studio seed funding, non-profit funding, tax credits or the traditional commissioning route. But the important thing is to continue producing and to close deals’.
About animation, Dubit and Kidoodle.TV talked about licensing, publishing, even videogames. For teenagers and adult animation, Adam Woodgate from Dubit remarked the importance of the mix of outlets for a brand: ‘This is a generation that has very quickly adopted the technology. Teens claim ownership and control over mobile connected devices, and the same happens to their media content’. Meanwhile, Daniel Riddell from Kidoodle.TV added: ‘Our business model focuses on ad-supported content, addressing the challenges associated with monetizing kids’ product. Our offer in lower-quality streams to accommodate such households, with a significant emphasis on connected TV as the primary platform’.
