ATF 2008 - Daily Report - Day 3
Asia continues demanding formats to produce local versions
By Fabricio Ferrara
The last day of ATF at Suntec Convention Center, Friday December 12th, confirmed the trend Prensario highlighted in the initial reports: the Asian companies continue seeking international formats to be adapted in their local markets, even during the financial crisis and budget cuts.
At the recent Mipcom, it was said that canned programming could be one possible way out to the crisis. But in the Asian market this is not happening. A distributor explains: ‘Our clients tell us about the difficult financial situation some channels are going through. But most of them still want formats; there is a huge need of fresh stories to be developed by the local TV channels'.
'Certain scenes featured in canned programming cannot be aired because some religions and social habits prohibit it', agree some worldwide distributors. But they add that there are some countries, such as India, where canned programming can work: ‘The Indian people accepts more things in comparison to other more religious countries, like Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore, among others'.
Another distributor comments: ‘Local production is already a trend in Europe and Latin America, now is crossing frontiers through Asia. The region used to buy mostly finished programming, but now is demanding a lot of original content'. Some buyers polled by Prensario agree on these statements and say that in some countries, the local production is gaining space because there is a strong promotion from local governments.
How is the Latin telenovela faring in Asia? Some years ago, Chinese, Korean and Taiwanese dramas started invading Asian screens -and some European, too- competing directly with Latin American telenovelas. According to a Latin distributor, this cycle period has stopped and now the Latin telenovelas are facing more possibilities in some Asian territories ‘because more slots have been opened; anyway, Asian drama can be an important competitor in Asia and, also, in Europe'.
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