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New kids on the block

If the number of newly-launched channels is any judge of industry sentiment, ten new offerings must surely be a sign of optimism amongst the region’s media owners. Television Asia looks at the line-up of new channels that are debuting on Asia Pacific’s screens in the coming months

1 November 2007

AXN Beyond
Launch date in Asia: January 2008
Sibling channels in Asia: AXN Beyond is the fourth 24/7 offering from SPE Networks – Asia, which also operates action and adventure channel AXN; youth- and animeoriented channel Animax; as well as female-skewed channel SET.
Target audience: Predominantly males between the age of 15-40. Thrill-seeking individuals always seeking the unconventional and the extraordinary, with an insatiable appetite for spooks and chills. Loves to delve into the alternate reality space, in search of the unbelievable and the unexplainable
Carriage already secured in Asia: SkyCable in the Philippines.
Programming highlights: 'Out of the Ordinary' programming – from an alternate reality where supernatural powers and unseen forces blur the line between 'reel' and 'real' world, in shows like Lost and Supernatural. Sci-fi and mystery/fantasy series like PainKiller Jane, The Dresden Files and shows that leave viewers gaping in amazement like Ripley's Believe It or Not!
"The decision to launch AXN Beyond stemmed from the fact that shows like Lost and Supernatural have been so well-received. Encouraged by the success of sci-fi, that its popularity is hotting up in Asia, we saw the opportunity to expand that viewership," says Ricky Ow, General Manager, SPE – Networks Asia. As to whether the new channel will cannibalize viewers from sibling channel AXN, Ow says that Beyond-type programming only accounts for around 10% of the overall AXN mix. And what of other new channels that are set to launch in Asia soon? "In pay- TV, you're pretty much competing with everybody else, not just same genre channels," says Ow. "There will always be a fight for shelf space, but many operators have worked with us before, which is a great starting point."
BABYTV
Launch date in Asia: June 2006
Sibling channels in Asia:
FOXCRIME, FX, FOX Life, FOX, FOX Horror under Fox Int'l Channels
Target audience: Infants and toddlers aged 1 - 3 years and their parents.
Ratio of owned versus acquired content: 85% owned, 15% acquired.
Carriage outside of Asia: Worldwide distribution in over 55 countries (across Western, Central and Eastern Europe, across Latin America, in Canada, in Africa and Asia)
Carriage already secured in Asia: Indovision in Indonesia, PCCW nowTV in Hong Kong, HanaTV and MegaTV in Korea, also syndicated blocks including on FOX HD in Japan.
Carriage pending: Hoping to secure carriage in every major Asian market.
How has channel been tailored for Asia? Local flavour is added to the channel by incorporating children's songs and nursery rhymes that are popular in local countries, and incorporating local faces in the channel including through interactive activities on the internet site where parents can see their child's clip aired on BabyTV.
Available in which language(s): English, Bahasa Indonesia for the time being.
Programming highlights: Ping & Pinga, two penguins who use their imagination to play with objects they find in their icy environment; dress-up program Egg Birds; and Baby Giants - a baby who goes on a magical adventure with one of his baby mobile animal toys.
"Shelf-space is always premium and limited on any operator's platform," says Liran Talit, Managing Director, BabyTV. "The question is how they see value in a product such as BabyTV and our other channels in helping them to grow their subscriber base. Going digital has created more shelf space but before long, it gets filled very quickly. Hence, National Geographic Channel and Fox International Channels continue to scan the market and identify niches where we can help increase the business of our operators. BabyTV products are versatile. We are offering VOD, SVOD, mobile, and our content on other cross-platforms. BabyTV is a commercial-free channel. Hence, we are heavily dependent on affiliate revenue. However, we are looking at more opportunities in going forward."
BBC GLOBAL CHANNELS
BBC KNOWLEDGE
Launch date in Asia: August 2007
Sibling channels in Asia: BBC Lifestyle, BBC Entertainment, CBeebies, BBC World
Target audience: BBC Knowledge showcases the best of BBC's award-winning factual and non-fiction entertainment programming focusing on the world, the past, business, science and technology, and people.
Carriage in Asia: SingTel mio TV, PCCW nowTV
Programming highlights: Highlights include Michael Palin: Full Circle - one of the BBC's most popular TV series with viewers in 42 countries; Ray Mears' Bushcraft - survival expert Ray Mears explores the important role played by bushcraft in the survival of indigenous people; and Top Gear – the motoring show attracting audiences of nearly four million each week in the UK.
BBC LIFESTYLE
Launch date in Asia: August 2007
Sibling channels in Asia: BBC
Knowledge, BBC Entertainment, CBeebies, BBC World
Target audience: BBC Lifestyle covers food, fashion and beauty, home and design, parenting, personal development and health to help viewers get the most out of life. BBC Lifestyle is an inimitable, ultimate viewer's guide to getting more out of life.
Carriage in Asia: SingTel mio TV, PCCW nowTV
Programming highlights: Featured programming include 'Saturday Style,' a female-oriented block of fashion and style programming on Saturday nights with honest, practical and sometimes outrageous advice shows such as Ten Years Younger, Here's Looking at You and What Not to Wear. A 'Foodie' block for food lovers broadcasts every weeknight featuring Festival of Taste, when renowned Top Gear What Not to Wear celebrity chefs entertain diners at luxury hotels across Dubai.
COMCAST INTERNATIONAL MEDIA GROUP
THE GOLF CHANNEL
Launch: 3rd quarter 2008 across Asia.n Carriage currently in place with local partners in Japan (CSTV), Korea (SBS), China (GDTV), Malaysia (Astro) and Hong Kong (nowTV)
Target Audience: Educated, wealthy, 35+ year old males
Owned content: 100%
Carriage outside Asia: 107 million households. United States, UK, Canada, Latin America, Middle East, Spain, Scandinavia, South Africa.
Targeting: Australia, India, Asia.
Languages: Japanese, English
Programming highlights: Golf Central is the definitive source for comprehensive daily news from the world of golf. Up-and-coming mini-tour players put it all on the line on The Big Break. Also Golf With Style, Fore Inventors Only, and Playing Lessons from the Pros.
THE STYLE NETWORK
Launch: Mid-2008
Sibling channel: E! Entertainment Television
Target Audience: Women 18 – 49 years
Owned content: 100%
Carriage outside Asia: 57 million households in United States. Launching in Europe, Middle East and Africa in 2008
Targeting: Asia Pacific markets
Languages: English with subtitles in Bahasa and Chinese launched in the future
Programming highlights: Style Star takes an intimate look at celebrity and fashion sensibility as it has evolved through the years. How Do I Look? features fashion-impaired victims as they get makeovers from two close friends and one professional stylist. Also Style Her Famous; My Celebrity Home; Dress My Nest; Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane; Pantry Raid; Whose Wedding Is It Anyway? And Married Away
"There are now fewer opportunities for analog carriage, and in markets like Philippines, Taiwan, India, Korea where digital uptake has lagged, this causes shelf space issues," says Christine Fellowes, Managing Director, Asia Pacific, Comcast International Media Group (CIMG). "With increased competition for carriage, CIMG believe that the winners will be strong channel brands. We've already had a tremendous reaction to The Style Network, as it speaks to a young female audience that is generally under-served on Asian platforms outside GE channels. We just started talking about The Golf Channel at MIPCOM and feel incredibly optimistic about the prospects." Fellowes says the business model for a niche channel will not support a separate localized feed for every market, however strongly branded niche channels will attract and sustain a unique and loyal, high value audience, critical to the digital operators' commitment to providing the power of choice to its viewers. "Revenues will initially be driven by subscription fees and license fees, and in the mid-to longer-term, advertising income. In markets where digital distribution is ramping up, and the industry understands the value of buying media against a focused, targeted demographic, advertising opportunities will follow fairly quickly. We've already seen this in markets like Australia and Malaysia.
KIDSCO
Launch date in Asia: Spring 2008
Sibling channels in Asia: Hallmark Channel
Target audience: Kids aged 6- 10 boys and girls, plus preschool children and their carers
Ratio of owned versus acquired content: Around two thirds of the program content by hours will come from KidsCo's shareholding partners Dic Entertainment and Nelvana (Corus Entertainment). The balance will be sourced from other non shareholding content partners including TV Loonland, Entertainment Rights, Decode, Iconix, Sesame Workshop and Daro.
Carriage outside of Asia: KidsCo already airs in 5 territories including Poland, Hungary, Romania, Turkey and Russia and will shortly launch in Ukraine. Future territories anticipated subject to closing deals for launch in 2008 are Spain, UK, Germany and Scandinavia.
How has the channel been tailored for Asia? The Asian schedule is tailored to the tastes of children by careful selection from our libraries and is being put together by Eddy Tan, KidsCo's Head of Programs who is himself Hong Kong Chinese and has a deep understanding of the market having previously been a Director of Programs for the Asia Pacific Disney Channels.
Programming highlights: Heathcliffe, Sabrina, Babar, Madeline, Ned's Newt, Dennis the Menace, Inspector Gadget. "Asia is not one market but a collection of markets with subtly different flavours and needs and shelf space issues. Analogue cable has finite space, and DTH satellite platforms are selective in what channels they add. IPTV platforms in Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korea present an opportunity," says Paul Robinson, Managing Director, KidsCo International. "As digitization rolls out it will create more space, but platforms are still carefully evaluating which channels will best meet their objectives and the needs of their customers." Robinson says KidsCo is currently looking at 24-hour distribution of the linear channel, and evaluating SVOD and VOD where it adds value mainly as an add-on to the linear KidsCo channel. He says the exception is Korea where the IPTV platforms are not yet permitted to carry full linear channels until there is legislative change, so the opportunity right now is branded video on demand. As for revenue streams, Robinson says KidsCo is not advertising driven and will derive most of its income from carriage fees. "We are exploring and are excited about other revenue streams and ways of accessing customers which may become significant for us in the future."
Jetix on Demand (on mio TV in Singapore)
Launch dates in Asia: May 2005 Jetix branded block launched in South Korea on animation channel CHAMP; July 2005 Jetix branded block launched in India on Star One, as part of Toon Disney; Oct 2005 Jetix branded block launched in Australia on Seven Network; Dec 2005 Jetix branded block launched in Japan as part of Toon Disney; Jan 2006 Jetix branded block launched in Vietnam on VTV3; Jetix content broadcast in Malaysia on TV3 and in New Zealand on TVNZ; Aug 2007 Jetix-on-Demand launched in Singapore on SingTel's IPTV Service mio TV
Target audience: Kids 6-14 years old
Ratio of owned versus acquired content: On Jetix-on- Demand, 100% owned content
Carriage outside of Asia: Jetix Europe (stand alone channel) reaches over 40 million subscribers in 58 countries and 18 languages. Jetix branded block on Toon Disney in the US launched in February 2004. Jetix Latin America launched in August 2004 reaching over 15 million households in 19 countries.
How has the channel been tailored for Asia? Jetix on Demand has a marketing strategy unique to Singapore
Available in which language(s): English for Jetix on Demand in
Singapore
Programming highlights: W.I.T.C.H., Get Ed, Super Robot Monkey Team Hyper Force Go!, A.T.O.M.
Says Laura E. Wendt, Vice President and Managing Director, Walt Disney Television International (Southeast Asia), "Pay-TV companies are responding to the influx of new channels by going digital to accommodate more channels, DTH services are acquiring more transponder capacity, and others are tiering and re-allocating channels. Digitization allows the same spectrum of channels to be compressed, giving space for new channels." Wendt says that for Southeast Asia, the company is currently looking at the Jetix brand as a unique viewing proposition and exploring new media applications suitable for the brand. "Jetix on Demand is our SVOD solution. We are continuing to discuss other new media applications for Jetix. For Disney Channel we're already in the mobile space as part of Disney Mobile Xtra with StarHub. The way we look at it, wherever and however the kids in our markets are consuming media, we will definitely explore putting our content on those platforms." So does a niche audience mean small? "By its very nature, SVOD allows viewers to enjoy the shows when they want and as often as they want. The 'sticky' nature of Jetix series is all about satisfying the need for adventure in a positive way," says Wendt. "Jetix-on-Demand is not ad-carried; for now, revenues are from subscription only."
NBC-UNIVERSAL
SCI FI CHANNEL, UNIVERSAL CHANNEL
Launch date in Asia: 1st half 2008
Sibling channels in Asia: CNBC Asia [and subject to approval and completion of Sparrowhawk acquisition Hallmark Channel, KidsCo, Movies 24]
How has channel been tailored for Asia: Local programming schedule, local interstitials, locally acquired content
Available in which language(s): English with subtitles, or dubbed into local language, as appropriate for each market Technology and viewer demand for channels that appeal to their passions and interests open many new opportunities for us. It isn't purely about programs anymore – brands, the total offering, localization, channel flow…all these are as important as their favourite shows. The ability for clearly differentiated channels laser targeted at a specific audience demographic or segment to secure shelf space is always going to be welcomed by both platforms and audiences in any market. The migration to MPEG-4 allows for more channels within the same transponders or bandwidth. Digitization is but a means to an end rather than the end in itself. It is still about compelling content. We believe this is where our channels have an advantage – strong programs, new genres, excellent brands and a commitment to excellence, localization and to understanding our audiences make for a strong case for our channels. Consumers are slowly beginning to partake of more offerings beyond the usual linear channels. Coming into the markets at this time has provided us with the opportunity to enter with more than just linear offerings and we are very keen to do so. NBC Universal has always been known for quality programs and programming. Sci Fi channel remains a channel offering that is unchallenged in Asia. It is a very clear and unique channel that we believe is a clutter cutter. Universal Channel carries with it both the Universal brand that research shows is one of the most recognized entertainment brands in Asia, as well as the legacy of being one of the most successful channel offerings in other parts of the world. Overlay both with an experienced team of professionals who know Asia, know its audiences, and is able to provide compelling localization and a commitment to investing in the region and you have a potent mix. Because our channels are thematic and appeal to particular passions and communities, they stand apart from more general channel offerings. But our channels, while targeted and thematic, are also designed to appeal to large segments of the audience. We think of our audiences as a community of like-minded people that remain underserved by existing products. We aim to close these gaps. Subscription revenues will always an important part of any business in this region. As the penetration of multichannel offerings increase and as new media begins to grow, we will see a shift towards other revenue models. Pay TV advertising continues to grow at a relatively strong pace together with the demand for innovative advertising models. We are eager to be involved with all of these revenue streams at the appropriate time.
ASIAN FOOD CHANNEL
9 Temasek Boulevard #23-02 Suntec Tower 2 Singapore 038989
Tel: 65 6835 8838 Fax: 65 292 7555
Email: enquiriesi@asianfoodchannel.com
Website: www.asianfoodchannel.com
KEY PERSONNEL
Hian Goh, Managing Director
Email: hian.goh@asianfoodchannel.com
Tel: 65 6835 8838
Maria Brown, Managing Director, Acquisitions & Programming
Email: maria.brown@asianfoodchannel.com
Tel: 65 6835 8838
Deepak Mirpuri, Vice President, Sales & Marketing
Email: deepak.mirpuri@asianfoodchannel.com
Tel: 65 6835 8838
The Asian Food Channel is all about food and the people who love it! Asia's fi rst 24-hour cable and satellite channel exclusively dedicated to airing the best food programming from around the region and around the world, AFC seeks to entertain, inform, and inspire. Targeting food lovers of all types, AFC's core audience is adults 25 to 45, made up of high fl yers, modern women and discerning foodies. Exploring all genres of food programming, AFC broadcasts in the original language format with subtitling in English, Chinese and other local languages. Owned and operated by AFC Networks Private Limited, the channel is
Singapore-based and enjoys the support of the Media Development Authority of Singapore.
Programming
From cookery and travel to wellness and reality, AFC explores all aspects of food and food related genres. To that end and keeping in mind its goal to program the best in food from around the region and around the world, AFC has managed to select some of the strongest Asian-made programming available including hits such as $2 Wonderfood, Dish …with Vivien and Chef in Black as well as exceptional western programming such as, The Heat with Mark McEwan, Sugar and The F Word, featuring Gordon Ramsay. In addition to regional expansion for the channel, 2008 will also see AFC signifi cantly increasing its slate of original productions which will not only enrich the channel's content but will be offered for international distribution


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