This ATF 2023 is an important edition of the traditional APAC content event. Beyond the conferences, announcements and sub-events, a sensation is clear: though the Asian market is essentially local and regional, now is more open to international players, generating global opportunities -from and towards Asia- that were not mature 4-5 years ago. The main roads to those are co-productions and all types of partnerships. And of course, technology. Asia is one of the top tech markets for new OTT initiatives and devices.

Yesterday, the first official day, began with an opening ceremony by Singapore's Minister of Communications and Information, Tan Kiat How. There were sessions as “Trending Asia, Winning Formats, Docs”, “Euro-American Dramas: The success of crime stories”, “Lunch Gathering with Taiwan” and “Best Original Production by a Streamer/OTT’’. In the afternoon, “Fresh Content K-Fromats” and “Drama Gems from Japan” gave a good brief of the two Asian production titans, presented by KOCCA (South Korea) and BEAJ (Japan) respectively.

"The French TV cocktail party" by Unifrance, the “iQiyiiJoy: 2024 Grand Reveal”, and the “Live with Jin Xing, China's Superstar Talk Show Host” were main cocktails, and "The Yani Tseng Story", presented by Huichieh Danielle Yen of Select (Taiwan) was the winner of the “ATF Beach House Pictures Unscripted Pitch 2023”. Across the conferences, the use of new technologies, artificial intelligence, social media, formats and forms of consumption in productions, were the main discussed topics.

Buyers from Indonesia, another big growing market: Gamaliel Paulus S, MNC
Group; Surya Hadiwinata, PT NET Mediatama Television; Oswin Bonifanz, Unlimited
Production

According to ATF buyers, the pavilions that attract most attention are those from China, Korea, Turkey and Singapore, followed by Japan and Taiwan, in addition to the classic booths of WBD, Sony, Paramount and NBC Universal. Many of the main productions presented, were made during the pandemic, such as the format produced by Something Special, "Still Alive".

Trendy testimonials? Rachel NG, content commissioning, Mediacorp, (Singapore): ‘We develop an audience-centric approach. We realize young people are not necessarily on their traditional platforms, but they're also not spending more time on Netflix or other global SVODs. They're actually on social media, not even YouTube, but even TikTok, Instagram and X (Twitter)’.

Manish Dutt, Visual Reality (India): ‘Compared to previous ATF editions, I see more genuine buyers this time. Perhaps less volume of people, but better attendance. About the offering, I see good content, again not so many, but a lot of new product. We are looking for anime, dramas and thrillers’. Chowdhury Fahriyar, Wildroots Media (Bangladesh): 'This time around, we are mainly looking for crime, suspense and historical genres. Also, Turkish and Korean products. The Bangladeshi market is experiencing a boom of localization and emerging SVOD and AVOD platforms. ATF is just to acquire contents for those aims'.

Rabia Asif, Dot Republic Media (United Arab Emirates): ‘This time there are more Korean and Chinese booths. Also, as a big new thing, everyone is looking for long-term partnerships. I feel the industry is shifting towards an advertising model, along with the major platforms, even Netflix and Disney. We have to exist where the audience is. The main tip is to have a good storytelling. It doesn't matter where it comes from. This is what MENA and Asia think now, very different from 3-4 years ago, when the Asian market was much closer’.

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