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15-21 March 2021

Clover Films eyes streaming opps

Debut deal with iQiyi fast tracks digital ambitions

Singapore’s Clover Films is working with Chinese streaming platform iQiyi on four new films over the next two years, the companies said this morn-ing on day one of this year’s Filmart Online. The announcement is part of Clover Films’ new TV streaming strategy launched last year.

The full story is on page 5

q

Astro creates new kids channel

Countdown to launch of new standalone SVOD

Malaysian platform Astro launches its first home-grown English-language kids entertainment channel, Ta-Daa!, on 15 March, mixing titles such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Dino Dana and Inspector Gadget, with series from Japan, Ko-rea and China. The new channel runs alongside Astro’s plans to roll out a new, standalone subscription steaming plat-form in a few months.

The full story is on page 3

WeTV boss urges sensible streaming rivalry“Malicious competition benefits no one,” Li tells Filmart

Tencent Video’s WeTV/iflix head, Kaichen Li, has sounded the alarm for “healthy and sustainable competition” among streaming platforms in Asia.

Speaking at the Hong Kong Trade De-velopment Council’s Filmart Online this morning, Li said most OTT platforms “are still under pressure to achieve both growth and profitability”.

“We want to see that collectively we can be successful and prevent malicious competition that benefits no one,” he said, adding that competition promoted innovation and creativity, and would both

speed up local industry development and enhance quality.

“Competition is good, but we also have to make sure that competition remains healthy and sustainable,” he said.

Li also noted the rise in popularity of Asian content around the region, particu-larly among Gen Z.

“Western titles used to be the best per-forming titles on OTT platforms in Asia, leading to rapid growth in early years,” he said.

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The rest of the story is on page 6

Kaichen Li, WeTV & iflix

15-21 March 2021 page 2.

Page 3.C NTENTASIA 15-21 March 2021

Malaysian platform Astro launches its first home-grown English-language kids enter-tainment channel, Ta-Daa!, on 15 March, mixing titles such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Dino Dana and Inspector Gadget, with series from Japan, Korea and China.

The new channel runs alongside As-tro’s plans to roll out a new, standalone subscription steaming platform in a few months.

The Kuala Lumpur-based platform has not confirmed details, although Astro is known to have acquired SVOD rights.

The new streamer is believed to be tar-getting young er audiences.

The new channel, targetting urban chil-dren, is promising more than 1,000 epi-sodes on demand in addition to linear.

A free preview across Astro platforms runs to 4 April. The channel will be avail-able to kids pack customers from 5 April.

Astro reworked its kids pack in mid-December last year two weeks ahead of the exit of Disney’s three linear channel brands – Disney and Disney Junior and Dis-ney XD – from the platform. All three were exclusive on Astro.

The new pack added WarnerMedia’s Boomerang and Viacom’s Nick Jr linear channels, which joined Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Baby TV, Astro Xiao Tai Yang, Chutti TV, Astro Tutor TV, Astro TVIQ and As-tro Ceria on the platform.

Astro’s kids upgrades coincide with speculation about the platform’s OTT/streaming plans beyond existing mobile play, Astro Go.

The original version of this story said the new service is believed to be using iQiyi’s tech. This is incorrect. Astro has

not yet disclosed its tech vendors

Astro creates new in-house kids channelCountdown to launch of new standalone SVOD

Dino Dana

Indonesia pushes quality Ramadan broadcasts

Indonesian religious and broadcasting leaders are urging TV stations to “serve quality Ramadan broadcasts” ahead of the holy month, which begins in early April. The Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI), Ministry of Religion (Kemenag), Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), highlighted values of faith and devotion to “create a calm, peaceful, comfortable and soothing Ramadan atmosphere”. Officials also stressed the use of competent preachers.

q

India’s Voot Select hits 1m paying subs ahead of

1st anniversary

Indian premium SVOD streaming service, Viacom18’s Voot Select, says it has a million active paying subscrib-ers less than a year after launch, and touted its content-supply deals with Showtime and Paramount+ as future growth drivers. Upcoming titles include Dexter (limited series), the Ray Dona-van feature film, The First Lady, the Frasier reboot and the second season of Why Women Kill. Viacom18 is a joint venture between India’s Network18 (51%) and ViacomCBS (49%).

q

Russia’s SMF Studio signs first Vietnam deal

Vietnamese telco FPT Telecom has picked up IPTV/OTT rights to five animat-ed series from Russia’s SMF Studio/Soyuz-multfilm in the first deal of its kind for the 85-year-old Russian animation house. Titles include The Secrets of Honey Hills (52 x 7 mins) and The Adventures of Peter and Wolf (52 x11mins). FPT offers more than 170 channels along with VOD and live shows.

15-21 March 2021 page 4.

@all3m

edia_intall3m

ediainternational.com

Thought-provoking drama

from critically acclaim

ed producersFROM AWARD-WINNING WRITER RUSSELL T DAVIES

A STORY OF LOVE, LIFE AND LOSS

Page 5.C NTENTASIA 15-21 March 2021

iQiyi, Clover Films tie up on 4 new filmsSingapore directors boost profile on Chinese stage

Clockwise from top left: Clover Films’ Lim Teck, Kelvin Tong, Melvin Mak, Tay Ping Hui, Ong Kuo Sin, iQiyi’s Song Jia

Singapore’s Clover Films is working with Chinese streaming platform iQiyi on four new films over the next two years, the companies said this morning on day one of this year’s Filmart Online.

The announcement comes two days ahead of iQiyi’s showcase in Singapore with Chinese production house G.H.Y. Culture and Media on Wednesday, and is part of Clover Films’ new TV streaming strategy launched last year.

The four co-productions are the first between Clover Films and iQiyi, and are being seen as an important step for Singapore companies into the mainland Chinese market and Chi-nese-speaking audiences globally.

The four films, shot primarily in Man-darin, will be directed by Kelvin Tong (Rule #1, A Year Of No Significance),

Melvin Mak (Soul Mate), Ong Kuo Sin (Number 1) and director/actor Tay Ping Hui (Meeting the Giant).

The first film to go into production is comedy Reunion Dinner (working title), written and directed by Ong Kuo Sin, whose most recent works include the Golden Horse Awards-nominated Num-ber 1.

The other three films are Kelvin Tong’s horror-thriller, a romance-drama by Mel-vin Mak, and a drama by Tay Ping Hui.

Clover Films (Ah Boys to Men II, Ra-men Tay) will handle international dis-tribution rights of the four titles. iQiyi will handle distribution for China.

On Wednesday this week, iQiyi will unveil a sneak preview of its first South-east Asia original drama series, The Fer-ryman: Legends of Nanyang.

Nippon TV secures rights to Joe Hisaishi concert

Japanese commercial broadcaster, Nippon TV, will produce and distribute new Joe Hisaishi concert, Joe Hisaishi & World Dream Orchestra 2021. The 90-minute concert, which includes the symphonic suite from Princess Mono-noke, will be held at the Tokyo Metro-politan Theater in Japan on 27 April. Hisaishi is best known for composing music Studio Ghibli’s animated feature films such as Spirited Away, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Laputa: Cas-tle in the Sky and My Neighbor Totoro.

q

New ethics rules will level the playing field, India’s

regulators insist

India’s regulators and the country’s digital news publishers are in fierce discussion over new digital media ethics guidelines. Union Minister of Information & Broadcasting, Prakash Javadekar, last week outlined “certain responsibilities” the new framework imposes, including a three-tier “grievance redressal mecha-nism”. He said the new rules level the playing field between traditional and new news players in India. Major publish-ers who participated in a government round table earlier in March said they already follow the rules laid down by the Cable Television Network Act and the Press Council Act, and that they should not be lumped together with digital-only players.

29 March – 1 April 2021 | 9.30am – 12.30pm SGT

OTT SummitThe Future of Video Streaming

#aviaottwww.avia.org

Press Release

CLOVER FILMS ANNOUNCES FOUR UPCOMING FILM PRODUCTIONS IN COLLABORATION WITH iQIYI

Singapore, 15 March 2021 – Clover Films is excited to announce a collaboration with iQIYI (爱奇艺) in co-producing four movies. This marks the first collaboration between the two companies in content creation and will be an important foray by Singapore media companies into the China entertainment market. The slate of four movies, to be shot primarily in Mandarin, will be helmed respectively by prominent Singapore directors Kelvin Tong 唐唐永永健健, Melvin Mak 麥麥擁擁雷雷, Ong Kuo Sin 王王国国燊燊 & Tay Ping Hui 郑郑斌斌辉辉. This collaboration between Clover Films and iQIYI seeks to merge talents between the two countries and create stories told by Singaporean filmmakers that cater to the wider Chinese language audience across Asia. The four movies will be shot over a span of two years and the first to go into production is comedy REUNION DINNER (working title), written and directed by Ong Kuo Sin, whose most recent works include the Golden Horse Awards nominated film NUMBER 1. More details, including the stellar regional cast lined up for the movie, will be announced at a later stage. “We are excited to be partnering with iQIYI on this excellent slate of movies by four sterling Singapore filmmakers. We have always believed in our local talent pool and are glad that our partners at iQIYI are as invested as we are in promoting Singaporean talent. We aim to produce movies that would connect to audiences in the China and Southeast Asian markets and this requires great support from iQIYI and our four directors. We are grateful for their trust in Clover Films.” says Mr Lim Teck, Managing Director of Clover Films. Ms Song Jia, Vice President of iQIYI and General Manager of iQIYI Film Business Centre added, "We are excited as well and we look forward to our collaboration with Clover Films. iQIYI has always been giving utmost support to outstanding filmmakers in all aspects, from content creation to distribution. We're honoured to work with these four distinguished Singaporean directors whom past works have gained great recognition in China, and we look forward to showcasing their upcoming works to the audiences in China, and to strengthen China and Singapore's partnership in the filmmaking industry. iQIYI will be working hand-in-hand with Clover Films on the various aspect of the four movies. From producing, to marketing and promotions and more, to help push the four movies to a larger market.”

Page 6.C NTENTASIA 15-21 March 2021

Media Prima adds veteran KMPG exec to board

Malaysia’s Media Prima has appointed KPMG veteran Abdullah Abu Samah as Independent non-executive director to the Board, effective immediately.Me-dia Prima’s share price has risen from RM0.13 one year ago to RM0.69 today, but it’s still a fraction of the RM3.02 glory days of mid-2007.

q

Amazon counts down to direct-to-streaming

Marathi movie premiere

Amazon Prime Video premiered its first Marathi direct-to-streaming theatrical feature, Picasso, on 19 March. Picasso, a feel-good story about a boy and his alcoholic father set against the world of folk art, is directed and co-written by Abhijeet Mohan Warang, and produced by Shiladitya Bora under the banner of Platoon One Films and Everest Entertainment. Prasad Oak stars alongside Samay Sanjeev Tambe and Ashwini Mukadam. The film will be avail-able across Amazon’s global platform.

C NTENTASIA

WomentoWatch

Picasso

“In recent years, fewer Western titles, especially series, are becoming regional blockbusters. Instead, Korean content, such as Crash Landing on You and The World of the Married, have surpassed Western content to take over the domi-nant position in Asia,” he said.

As part of the same trend, there are early signs that Chinese and Thai content is following in the footsteps of Korean. “For Chinese content, not only the costume dramas but the modern dramas are res-onating well in Asia,” Li said, highlighting My Girlfriend is an Alien and You are my Destiny, which he said have been WeTV’s top performers so far. “Both series outper-formed some local blockbuster titles,” he added.

Thai titles on WeTV were led by Bad Ge-nius The Series, a spinoff of Bad Genius The Movie. “We believe we will see a continu-ous boom in local Asian content,” Li said.

In an afternoon session about formats in Asia, Korean broadcaster MBC’s director of global business, Keun-bum Lee, spoke about MBC’s Masked Singer, now in 54 countries, as well as new spinoff, Masked Dancer, and the advantages of a format with no cultural barriers and the high ac-ceptance of Korean drama, particularly in Southeast Asia.

Lester Hu, Hunan TV’s head of formats & international business, highlighted studio dating format Key to Heart, based on the

premise that people’s phones hold criti-cal clues in singletons’ hunt for the perfect match. The show premiered on Hunan TV in 2020. Key to Heart will be part of Hunan TV’s Mip TV Formats catalogue.

Hu also spoke about characteristics of Chinese formats and the ongoing efforts to bridge East and West in format adapta-tion and co-production.

Sakti Parantean, Fremantle Indonesia’s co-MD, spoke about the ongoing success of Indonesian Idol, now in its 11th (and most successful) season, along with the company’s new foray into podcast for-mats. Parantean attributed Idol’s latest season success to an audience desper-ate for fresh content after a steady diet of Covid-19 reruns.

The 2021 Filmart Online is the second online Filmart event – and the first back in Filmart’s regular March slot – after last year’s four-day show shifted to the end of August. The show opened this morn-ing with 8471 participants registered and an hour-long HAF work-in-progress docu-mentary pitch with nine projects ranging from old age/isolation, a food stall’s con-tribution to the social fabric in a remote village, and the story of Bangkok’s last stand-alone cinema.

Tomorrow’s conference agenda looks at the future of OTT in Asia with WarnerMe-dia, Hulu Japan and iQiyi; producing dur-ing a pandemic & showcases from Thai-land, France and Japan, among others.

Lester Hu (Hunan TV), Sakti Parantean (Fremantle Indonesia) and Keun-bum Lee (MBC Korea)

From page 1: Filmart Online

Page 7.C NTENTASIA 15-21 March 2021

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Be included, contact: Leah at leah@contentasia.tv (Americas and Europe)

or Masliana at mas@contentasia.tv (Asia, Australia and Middle East)

PR

ESS PLAY

Page 8.C NTENTASIA 15-21 March 2021events

contentasia

What’s on where... March 2021 15-18 Hong Kong Filmart Online

29 Mar-1 Apr AVIA OTT Virtual Summit Online

April 2021 12-16 MIP Doc Online

12-16 MIP Formats Online

12-16 MIP TV Online

14-16 Content Expo Tokyo Tokyo, Japan

20-22 APOS April Edition Online

29 AVIA Future of Video India Online

May 2021 18 AVIA Philippines in View Online

June 2021 14-15 DW Global Media Forum Bonn, Germany & Online

16-18 Vietnam Telefilm Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam & Online (7-30 June)

22-23 APOS India Online

28-30 MIP China Online

July 2021 12 AVIA Satellite Industry Forum Online

14-16 BroadcastAsia/CommunicAsia Singapore & Online

August 2021 26-27 ContentAsia Summit Online

27 ContentAsia Awards Online

September 2021 1-3 APOS September Edition Online

8 AVIA Vietnam in View Online

9-12 Gwangju ACE Fair Gwangju, Korea

October 2021 9-10 MIP Junior Cannes, France

8-13 Canneseries Cannes, France & Online

11-14 Mipcom Cannes, France

November 2021 9-11 AVIA Asia Video Summit - State of Piracy Online

10-12 Busan Contents Market (BCM) TBC

24-25 Dubai International Content Market Dubai

December 2021 1-3 Asia TV Forum & Market Online

The full list of events is available at www.contentasia.tv/events-list * As of Friday, 12 March 2021

Page 9.C NTENTASIA 15-21 March 2021

Hong Kong

countryprofile

Lo and Behold, a half-hour sitcom airing on TVB Jade daily since 2017

In numbersPopulation (Dec ‘20)...................... 7.474mHouseholds (Dec ‘20).................... 2.684mAvg. household size (Dec ‘20)............. 2.7TV households (Nov ‘19)................ 2.538mTotal TV audience (4+, Nov ‘19)....... 6.5mTotal TV prog svc licences (Dec‘20)..... 36- Domestic free TV prog licences............ 3- Domestic pay TV prog licences............ 2 - Non-domestic TV prog licences......... 10- Other licensable TV prog licences..... 21DTT penetration (Oct ‘20)................... 95%Pay TV households (June ‘20)......... 2.11mPay TV penetration (June ‘20)......... 79.8%Internet service providers (Dec‘20)....... 263Broadband internet subs (Sept ‘20)... 2.8mBb H/H penetration (Sept ‘20)............ 95%FTTH H/H penetration (Sept ‘20)...... 56.1%Mobile phone subs (Sept ‘20)......... 22.4mMobile sub penetration (Sept‘20).... 281.2%Mobile network operators (Dec ‘20)...... 5Res fixed line penetration (Aug‘20).. 83.7%Local fixed network ops (Dec‘20)......... 27

Source: Census and Statistics Department (population, households), Office of the Communications Authority (TV, internet, mobile)

Free TVFantastic TV LtdFantastic TV, owned by i-Cable Com-munications, operates two free TV ser-vices – Cantonese GE channel Hong Kong Open TV (launched May 2017 as Fantastic Television, rebranded Oct 2018 as Hong Kong Open TV) and English channel, Hong Kong International Busi-ness Channel (launched 30 July 2018) offering news and infor in English and Putonghua. i-Cable Communications received its free-TV licence in May 2016. The licence runs to May 2028, with a mid-term review in 2022.

HKTVEPCCW’s HK Television Entertainment (HK-TVE) launched Chinese-language free-TV channel ViuTV in Mar 2016; commercial services started in Apr 2016. ViuTV, which has an average monthly audience reach of four million (Dec 2020), airs factual ent, drama, news, kids & sports. HKTVE launched 2nd free-TV service – English-language ViuTVsix – in Mar 2017, airing talk shows, classic Hollywood movies and live sporting events, among others.

Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK)RTHK was set up in 1928 with government funding to provide public service con-tent. The aim for 2020-21 is to provide 1,830 hours of first-run TV programmes and the projected TV output by genre: 16.8% current affairs, 16.4% civic educa-tion, 16% arts/culture, 15.8% continuing education, 15.2% arts and culture, 14% special interests group, 12.8% youth/children, and 9% mainland affairs. RTHK operates three digital terrestrial TV chan-nels – RTHK TV31, RTHK TV32, RTHK TV33 – launched in 2014. The total transmis-sion hours for 2020-21 is 26,280 hours. Flagship channel RTHK TV31 airs current affairs, education, arts and culture pro-gramming. RTHK TV32 covers live events, including Legislative Council meetings. RTHK TV33 is a relay of China Central Television’s CCTV-1. RTHK also operates online/mobile TV/radio apps.

Television Broadcasts Ltd (TVB)TVB (est. Nov 1967) operates five digital terrestrial television channels – Jade (Can-tonese); Pearl (English); TVB News (24 hr); TVB Finance & Information (24-hr); and J2 (GE, youth-focused). TVB also operates OTT service myTV Super (9.1m users, Dec 2020) in Hong Kong and TVB Anywhere

(15.2m users, June 2020) overseas. TVB programmes are licensed worldwide. The company produces about 600 hours of drama series and 21,000 hours of infotain-ment content a year.

Pay TVHong Kong Cable TelevisionHong Kong Cable Television, owned by i-Cable Communications, launched in 1993 and offers TV, broadband internet, multimedia and telephony services. The platform had 754,000 TV subscribers (plus 190,000 broadband & 78,000 telephone subs) in June 2020. Monthly subscriptions range from HK$179/US$23 to HK$579/US$74. i-Cable also offers two mobile apps i-Cable News OTT, providing life-style/news/finance info; and i-Cable Mobile for live channels and on-demand content. Select content are free. Pre-mium content are accessible only to pay-TV subscribers.

now TVnow TV launched in 2003 and offers more than 200 linear TV channels and an on-demand library of in-house, local, Asian and int’l programming to upwards of 1.348m users in Hong Kong (Dec 2020). At

Advertising/SponsorshipLeah Gordon

E: leah@contentasia.tv T: +1 323-654-0456 M: +1 310-926-6761

BookingsNowOpen

DECEMBER 2020

C NTENTWarnerMedia: Insiders’ guide

to the new Asia structure

Plus: Streaming insights, Thai drama

& finding funding

K-drama: Winners

& the others

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16-22 November

2020

2020 winners at

www.contentasiaawards.com

Izham Omar joins

Disney+ SEAMedia Prima lifer

decamps to Singapore

Disney+’s months long search for a

head of content for Southeast Asia

has ended, with the announcement

on Tuesday (17 Nov) that Izham Omar

is joining Amit Malhotra’s Singapore-

based emerging markets team after a

17-year career with Media Prima in Ma-

laysia. Omar’s last day at Media Prima

was on Friday, 13 Nov.

The full story is at www.contentasia.tv

q

iQiyi uncovers buried Thai drama

for Dec line-upLong wait ends for director

Mangmoom Rattakul

iQiyi’s new Thai drama acquisition,

Mangmoom Rattakul’s Daughters,

premieres on the international stream-

ing service on 4 Dec, tapping an intense

female-driven story that has been on ice

in Thailand for five years and creating

a happy ending for a production team

that thought the series might be buried

forever.

The full story is on page 2

contentasiawww.contentasia.tv

Putting your brand & products in front of more buyers & decision makers in22 Asia-Pacific markets. ContentAsia reaches 10,000+ unique executives with its

clear editorial focus on Asia, including market developments, trends, influences & information that makes a difference.

ContactLeah Gordon at leah@contentasia.tv (Americas, Europe, U.K.)

Masliana Masron at mas@contentasia.tv (Asia, Australia, Middle East) For editorial info, contact Malena Amzah at malena@contentasia.tv

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Page 11.C NTENTASIA 15-21 March 2021

the end of 2020, now TV added new mul-ti-user feature allowing up to five profiles within a single now TV account. Subscrib-ers get free access to live/on-demand Now Player app. Now TV also offers streaming service Now E since May 2018 as a one-stop entertainment platform for millennials with international and Asian drama/movies and sports. Now TV is the media entertainment arm of telco HKT.

Streaming/OTT

Hong Kong has access to a wide range of online streaming platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, CuriousityStream, Apple TV, Netflix, Spuul and Yupp TV. Asia Television Digital MediaDefunct free-TV broadcaster Asia Televi-sion Limited (ATV), which went off air in April 2016 after 59 years, was reincar-nated as an OTT service in Dec 2017. The service launched commercial services in Jan 2018, and now offering acquired content, original series/movies and library content from its two former TV channels. ATV, which was known for its shows such as Central Affairs, My Date With A Vampire and the local version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, has also ramped up its production ambition with the formation of Asia Momentum Me-dia (AMM) in 2020 to develop a slate of films, series and variety shows.

hmvodMusic/DVD retailer HMV Digital China group launched online video stream-ing platform hmvod in Mar 2017. hmvod offers over 15,000 hours of Hollywood/Asian/international/original movies and TV series. Available standalone and via telco partners including CSL, Smartone, 3HK, HGC, China Mobile and China Uni-com at HK$88/US$11 a month.

myTV SupermyTV Super launched in Apr 2016, offer-ing multi-screen access to TVB content – drama series from mainland China, Korea, Taiwan and Japan; variety shows and animation; Hollywood, Hong Kong and Asia movies; and live broadcasts of over 55 local/int’l TV channels, including five TVB free-to-air channels and third-

party channels. The service is available via mobile app, website and myTV Super decoder for HK$148/US$19 a month for myTV Gold pack. myTV Super, owned/operated by MyTV Super Ltd, the digital media unit of Hong Kong’s dominant terrestrial broadcaster, Television Broad-casts Limited (TVB), had 9.1m registered users in Dec 2020. Paid subscribers hit 1.3 million in June 2020.

RTHKOnline/mobile apps, including flagship RTHK On The Go, which offers news, live radio, TV and podcasts; news portal at rthk.hk; RTHK Screen for live webcast/catch-up; and RTHK News in Chinese and English.

ViuHong Kong telco PCCW launched over-the-top (OTT) video streaming service, Viu, in Oct 2015. The freemium ad-sup-ported/subscription platform carries con-tent from Korea, Japan, Mainland China and Taiwan. Viu had 45 million monthly active users (MAUs), of which 5.3 million were paying subs across the region (Dec 2020). Viu’s biggest selling point is its slate of Korean drama acquired from Korean broadcasters SBS, KBS, MBC, CJ ENM and JTBC. Maintaining its strong Asian, and particularly Korean, pipeline, Viu’s top two titles in Southeast Asia include Korean dramas Mr Queen, True Beauty, The Penthouse, Alice, Tale of the Nine Tailed and Lie After Lie. Viu’s first original Korean drama – period romance River Where the Moon Rises – premiered on 15 February 2021. Outside of Hong Kong, Viu is available in Singapore (since Jan 2016), Malaysia (Feb 2016), Indonesia (May 2016), the Philippines (Nov 2016), the Middle East (Feb 2017), Thailand (May 2017) & Myanmar (Sept 2018) and South Africa (Mar 2019).

Production

180 Degrees ProductionOffers full production and location support to local and international production companies. Specialises in TVCs, stills, corporate, featured docu-mentaries, short films and music video content.

countryprofile

Ants Media AsiaEst. in London in 2002. Opened in HK in 2012, providing production services/support for news, sports and docu as well as live streaming. Video camera crew packaged with full kit start from HK$6000/US$773 a day.

APVAPV is a film and creative agency work-ing with brands across Asia. Clients in-clude RTHK, Nat Geo and BBC.

Cheeky Monkey ProductionsFilm/TV production company (founded 2009) creating media from a modern, female perspective. Credits include The Helper, Tuesday Girl, Habibti, Polo Dolls (U.S.) and All Rhyme, No Reason.

Coconuts TVProduces short videos focusing on Asia spanning news, food, travel, and docu-mentary. Video production division of news network Coconuts Media.

Golden Gate ProductionsIncorporated in 1992, producing films and TV programmes such as Theory of Ambi-tions (HK), As The Light Goes Out (HK), crime thriller film Port of Call (HK), Lakshmi 2011 (India), Shadow Boxing III (Russia), Perfect Proposal (Korea), Suspect (Korea) and miniseries One Child (BBC).

Just MediaSpecialises in films, TV programmes (drama, docu), TV commercials and multimedia programmes for regional/international markets.

Mustard CollectiveMustard (est. 2011) creates original long- and short-form content and provides production services.

RTHKRTHK has pledged to produce 1,830 hours of first-run TV programmes for 2020-2021 skewed towards current affairs, civ-ic education and arts/culture content.

Salon FilmsLaunched in 1959, Salon Films provides a range of services, including production, distribution & equipment rental.

Television Broadcasts Ltd (TVB)(See TVB in Free TV) TVB produces more

Page 12.C NTENTASIA 15-21 March 2021

than 600 hours of drama series and 21,000 hrs of infotainment a year.

Telcos/MobileChina Mobile Hong KongA wholly owned subsidiary of China Mo-bile est. Jan 1997. Services include voice, data, IDD and international roaming. Had 946m mobile subs (incl. 770m 4G and 114m 5G) and 204m wireline broad-band subs (Sept 2020).

HKBNOffers telecomms solutions for residential and enterprise markets. Had 886,000 broadband residential subs and 275,000 mobile subs in Aug 2020.

HKTProvides fixed-line, broadband, mobile comms and pay-TV services.

Hutchison TelecommunicationsPart of the CK Hutchison group, the tel-co offers mobile, fixed and wifi networks.

SmarToneThe wireless communications carrier pro-vides voice, multimedia, mobile broad-band services and fixed fibre services to about 2.8m residential/corporate cus-tomers (Dec 2020).

RegulatorsCommunications Authority (CA)Est. on 1 April 2012 as an independent statutory body, the CA oversees telecoms and broadcasting sectors, makes recom-mendations on domestic free-TV/pay-TV programme service licences, and deals with public complaints.

Office of the Communications Authority (OFCA)The Office of the Communications Au-thority (OFCA) is the executive arm and secretariat of the Communications Au-thority, responsible for providing execu-tive support to the CA in administering and enforcing the relevant legislation governing the broadcasting and tel-ecommunications industries.

countryprofile

Adapted from ContentAsia’s The Big List 2021

Be included!

ContentAsia’s directory listings are updated continuously.

If you would like to be included, send your details to Malena at

malena@contentasia.tv

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AsiaPac heads for 630m pay-TV subs6 countries will lose subs in the next five years, report

Asia Pacific will have 630 million pay TV subscribers by 2026, up from 609 mil-lion at end-2020, according to data released today by the U.K.-based Digital TV Research’s Asia Pacific OTT TV and Video Forecasts.

Six countries – including China – will lose pay TV subscribers between 2020 and 2026. China will fall by 10 million subs.

“This is cord-cutting, but represents only a 3% decline to 318 million,” says principal analyst, Simon Murray.

India will add 21 million subs. China and India together will have nearly 500 million subs by 2026, the report says.

The number of TV households will grow by 54 million to 979 million.

IPTV subscribers will overtake cable in 2024. IPTV will add 51 million subscribers between 2020 and 2026 to take its total to 283 million.

Digital cable subs will fall by 19 million and analogue cable subscriptions will fall by 13 million, the report shows.

I Can See Your Voice heads for Quebec1st major variety show for Canada’s Noovo

CJ ENM’s top Korean format, I Can See Your Voice, heads for Canada in a multi-party deal with channel Noovo.

This is the mystery singing contest’s first Quebec adaption, scheduled to premiere this Fall.

The show, commissioned by distributor Incendo in Canada, is being produced by ToRoS in collaboration with Bell Me-dia, which says this is the Noovo’s first

major variety show.I Can See Your Voice has run for eight

seasons in Korea since its debut in Febru-ary 2015.

The format has so far been adapted in 17 countries, beginning with Thailand and China in 2016 and has aired for 39 seasons worldwide, including the U.S., Germany and Netherlands. Eight ver-sions are scheduled to debut this year.