This year marks the 16th edition of the Asia TV Forum & Market (ATF), which runs from December 1 to 4 at Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands. Running concurrently with the 5th edition of ScreenSingapore, the 2015 edition of ATF is poised to attract more than 5,000 attendees from across 60 countries, according to Yeow Hui Leng, the Senior Project Director of Asia TV Forum & Market (ATF) and ScreenSingapore (SS) at Reed Exhibitions.
Consisting of two parts; market and conferences, ATF attendees will benefit from the 4 days of vibrant international trade market and insightful conferences. ATF’s market will provide attendees with plenty of business opportunities to buy, sell, network with producers, broadcasters, over-the-top (OTT) players and cable operators in the region.
With over 850 buying companies attending, Asia TV Forum & Market (ATF) brings you closer to Asia’s buying community, facilitating the sale and export of engaging content across all genres and platforms to the Asian buyer. With growing interest from Asian content buyers, this year we will also see more exhibitors from China and Japan and new entrants such as Bloomberg, Studio Canal, Fox International Channels, Raya Group, Rainbow, MNC Contents who will be participating in ATF for the first time, the market is likely to expect an even more robust performance.
Attendees will also get to participate in conferences and learn from some of the most influential and brightest leaders in TV, film and digital media landscape. Hui Leng says that the overall ATF lineup this year presents a greater variety of the Asian countries covered, “giving ATF 2015 a more holistic view of the industry in Asia”. Participants can expect to gather a great deal of information from the panel of speakers and thought leaders that will be present at ATF.
Kicking off ATF’s pre-market conference as the keynote speaker for Into the Future of Television: Asia’s Move Forward is TV industry’s notable business leader, D.J. Lee, President of CJ E&M Media Content Business (Korea). He will highlight some of CJ E&M’s recent successes as well as his past experiences on organizing Korea’s most powerful Pay TV platform channel, tvN, which has led to compelling decisions made today and will determine future partnerships within Asia. This will be one of the most exclusive and progressive insights into one of Asia’s most significant media empires. Another keynote speaker is René Rechtman, Head, International, Maker Studios (USA), who will be elaborating on the Development and Expansion in Asia’s Digital Marketplace. He will discuss market shifts and trends in the digital ecosystem in Asia and give attendees, the background growth story of Maker Studios in the region, sharing new initiatives about product, programming and distribution categories within the Asian contingent.
Buyers and producers will also be presented with the latest know-how and trends for kids’ content at Junior@ATF, alongside the deployment of a dragnet on narratives for new formats and ideas that can travel across borders at Formats@ATF, an initiative that was developed with producers in mind as a forum to create, develop and market ideas with format experts through a conference setting, as well as masterclasses conducted by renowned creative talents such as Danny Stack, Writer and Director (UK) of Thunderbirds Are GO, Octonauts, Who Killed Nelson Nutmeg? and Melodie L. Shaw, Member Representative and Organizer of the Writers Guild of America (USA).
Highlighting the current business landscape that traditional players face with disrupters and shifts in content consumption, Steve Macallister, CEO of All3Media International (UK), will share how they stay on top of the United Kingdom and foreign markets.
Some of Asia’s top buyers like Maggie Xiong, Senior Director of International Acquisitions of Youku Tudou (China) and Charlene Lai, Senior Director, Content Acquisition and Licensing, APAC, Le Corporation Limited (Hong Kong) will discuss more on the evolving role of international acquisitions and the type of new ideas and shows channels that they are looking for among content providers.
Last year’s edition hosted more than 71 speakers and 658 exhibitors, and Leng acknowledges that 2015’s ATF attendees can expect to be a part of the mechanics within the heart of Asian television. From the dynamically curated market and conference, where they can tap into the growth potential of Asia’s market, to experiencing the robust character of Asia’s entertainment content industry by connecting with international content sellers and Asian buyers, participants will be able to mesh together and be allied to the constantly evolving Asian television landscape.
Held in conjunction with ATF, the 2015’s edition of ScreenSingapore (SS) will launch a brand new feature, the Southeast Asian Film Financing (SAFF) Project Market. The first of its kind, SAFF seeks to connect promising producers and their projects with commissioners, investors, and co-production partners.
For more information on ATF’s exciting programme, conference line-up and speakers, please visit www.asiatvforum.com