Asian TV Forum (ATF) 2022 returns to a full in-person event for the first time after the pandemic. And it takes place in a good moment to invest in Asian Pacific region (APAC). This is one of the emerging zones morestable in economics of the world, that stopped a lot of activities for long time during Covid-19. It is very embedded on technology, especially on its main countries. So, digital platforms and all tech developments mature first and better in APAC, with many leading local OTT players gaining vs global titans.
Why is good to stay this year at ATF? The first return from the pandemic always shows the market more open to the players that attend. And though all the capacity of the RX Global organization was sold in Singapore, the movement is still behind 2019 numbers. So, if you attend you come first vs. many others, that will attend only next year, it is a big opportunity.
What is the big trendnowadays in the content market to take in mind? In digital platforms development, the milestone is turning from SVOD to AVOD/FASTchannels, from subscribers to advertisement. Now the OTT platforms want to be also exhibitors, as they need to attract content players to generate FAST channels, made around revenue sharing models and advertisement incomes. This trend is a segment on its own: it includes different kinds of OTTs, aggregators, tech providers, content or business hubs, new outputs as TV set manufacturers, luxury cars, etc.
In Asia, do we have the same digital map than international? Not at all, in Asia and Middle East, 7 from 10 leading OTTs are local or regional, vs Europe and the Americas where the global titans —Netflix, etc.— are the heads. Please see our other reports at this ATF edition to precise them. Due to so strong and so many local players, there are more fragmentation in content demand, and more chances of twisted alliances. Though, global trends are the same everywhere, sooner or later.
All will be AVOD in digital platforms from now? Of course not. Every sector will continue and AVOD growth will refit the content bowl. AVOD is so far a bigchance of moving catalogue product, and a great complement to SVOD monetization problems, where original content costs grow faster than subscriber incomes. Some AVODs speaks about starting to produce original content too, but let’s see.
So… which are the big drivers of the international and Asian/APAC content markets? Mainly three: 1, co-productions, the way for broadcasters to access to high-end product and open abroad markets. 2, the original content for SVODs, which now faces a stop in many projects, but continues as the big production hit worldwide. And 3, the AVODs/FAST channels, which take the content consumption again to the linear free TV ads-supported times, but on a digital platform basis.
Scripted or non-scripted, at this ATF 2022? Many actors said at Mipcom about the world, that entertainment formats are back after a lack of creativity period, bringing big producers again to its genres. But others continue saying that fiction is the new thing, to grow and refresh screens. For sure, broadcasters prefer entertainment formats to have easier top local content, while for digital platforms, fictions are the best, though they are entering more in unscripted. Asia has made a difference in both: with ‘out of the box’ unscripted formats (Japan, Korea) and with fictions that are now sold globally: Korea, India, Malaysia, The Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, etc.
Genres up? In unscripted, intelligent realities, that surprise audience at every step. As recently, mixtures of genres as realities, game, dating, cooking shows, always with twists. Celebrities are on top, but now in bizarre situations. In kids, more live action and young adult targets; for smallest kids, very short formats created in Youtube and based on songs. For Pay TV, True Crime, both factual or fictions based on real stories. About fiction in general, films are up vs. series, the series are made shorter. Thrillers continue as a top option because they travel everywhere. Comedies, biopics, science fiction, historical, procedural, are on a good move.
The future is ‘Glocal’? Of course, but internationalization continues as a problem for many local projects to turn real.In Asia, though there are some countries already well considered worldwide, as Japan and Korea, on the opposite 3-4 from 5 ventures in others—even China, India— are stopped due to ‘too much local’. They must work on production standards and international relationships. Government censuresare a problematic issue too, especially to deploy global hits and to set up win win deals. Though, the censures at main stream media boost digital ventures. At all times, problems and opportunities are together, ATF this year is a perfect example. Let’s see what we can add during event days in Singapore.
Nicolás Smirnoff
