Asia TV tackling problems head on
Piracy, funding were hot topics of discussion at confab
Forum panelists were candid about the problems faced industry-wide. Pay TV's perennial signal piracy problems were high on the agenda, with Discovery Networks Asia's exec veep. and managing director Neville Meijiers estimating revenues of up to 20% lost to those receiving and redistributing content illegally.
Amidst general agreement that existing penalties for intellectual property theft were in no way harsh enough, both boycotting or legitimizing the pirates were suggested as possible solutions by Thailand's pay-TV operator UBC's deputy CFO Basil Sgourdos.
While touching on measures taken by the Chinese authorities against pirates there, Beijing-based Odyssey Investment Consulting's Rowan Simons concluded that no serious anti-piracy measures would be taken until home-grown firms were affected by the problem.
Falling advertising revenues and lack of program funding proved a popular topic across terrestrial, pay TV and animation industries, with the inaugural Asia Animation conference also taking place this year.
Co-production was a phrase both over-used and misunderstood in the region with Asian programmers as ever warned to choose partners carefully. While it is successful for certain genres, like documentary, and in certain markets -- like Chinese drama in co-production between China, Hong Kong, Taiwan or Singapore -- questions were raised as to whether it can truly work across other borders and for all programming.
Frank Saperstein, executive producer and creative director at Philippine Animation Studios, urged Asian animation studios to escape their sweatshop image. "We previously relied on service work from the U.S. and Canada, but now that's diminishing and the time is right to pursue co-production -- but not so that one partner reaps all the benefits. It's no good if the foreign partner is calling all the shots."
Echoing his sentiment was Nandini Vaidyanathan, COO at India's UTV Toons, eager to paint a cost-effective business with a well-defined management structure, rather than a horde of artists holed up in a studio. "No longer do creativity and profit have to be mutually exclusive terms," she says.
Interactivity was another hot topic, with real-time Short Messaging Service text-messaging via mobile-phone proving the most popular, accessible and affordable form of interactivity at this stage of Asian TV evolution.
As Sandie Lee, programming VP at Singapore Cable Vision points out, viewers may say they want interactivity but -- as SCV trials show -- auds prefer the idea to the reality.
Reality is too much for U.S. auds post Sept. 11 according to Jim Chabin, prexy of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. "People are choosing comfort television, safe, happy, family shows," he says, suggesting this may have a ripple effect on Asian auds, which are influenced by U.S. content.
Coupled with news that soap-powder giant Unilever may be funding shows in Thailand, is it a return to soap operas, as viewers seek solace in a mass exodus to TV Land?
