|
For the past 25 years , HBO Asia has been bringing the best of Hollywood to Asia through its partnerships with several Hollywood studios , including Paramount Pictures , Sony Pictures , Universal Studios , Warner Bros and Lionsgate .
And in a region embodied by richness in culture and histories , HBO Asia has also been producing original content since 2012 , creating 10 Asian Originals to date .
Last year alone , HBO Asia premiered four Asian Originals , including the second season of Halfworlds , a dark action fantasy drama series set in Bangkok ; The Teenage Psychic , its first original Chinese series set in Taiwan ; SENT , a comedy drama series that premiered in September ; and The Talwars : Behind Closed Doors , HBO Asia ’ s first original documentary series .
Jessica Kam , senior vice-president for HBO Asia Original Production , told APB : “ It is part of the company ’ s commitment to producing more content , and we ’ re ready to inject more budget into doing this . By producing more content , we ’ re able to create more genres , which is a critical aspect of our strategy .
“ Besides catering to different genre preferences , we have to appeal to a wider age range . For instance , we want to target younger audiences as well , because in the new world of the Internet , the audiences tend to be younger than our typical HBO audiences . Therefore ,
|
we have to expand our genres to captivate them .”
Declaring that the media industry is facing a completely different landscape brought forth by the emergence of over-the-top ( OTT ) services , Kam pointed out that the key to a competitive strategy is still content . She elaborated : “ Although technology has changed how media companies reach out to their audiences , it is content that really drives them to the channel .
“ Audiences will come to the channel if there is good content . More importantly , audiences today are aware of the programmes they want to watch , but the question is where can they watch it ? We ’ re in an age of viewers finding the service instead of accommodating to them , and our job is to create even more compelling content so that they will be drawn to us .”
HBO Asia is a wholly owned subsidiary of Time Warner ’ s HBO , and has reached out to 23 territories in Asia with six 24-hour subscription movie channels — HBO , HBO Signature , HBO Family , HBO Hits , Cinemax and Red by HBO — as well as an Internet streaming platform , HBO GO , and a subscription video-on-demand ( SVoD ) service , HBO On Demand .
With a commitment to expanding its repertoire further for audiences in the region and globally , the network plans to increase the number of HBO Asian Originals productions scheduled to premiere
|
in the coming years .
One series premiering on HBO Asia ’ s network of channels is Folklore , a six-episode , hour-long horror anthology series that takes place across multiple Asian countries including Indonesia , Japan , South Korea , Malaysia , Singapore and Thailand , with each episode based on each country ’ s superstitions and myths .
Helmed by different directors from various countries in Asia , each episode will seek to explore societal dysfunctions in a manner that is specific to the country , yet possessing themes that will resonate across the continent .
HBO Asia has also entered a partnership with HJ Holdings , the operator of Hulu subscription SVoD service in Japan , to co-produce an original drama series — Miss Sherlock . The eight-part Japanese drama series will be aired across 20 countries this April on Hulu in Japan and on HBO Asia ’ s network of channels , including HBO GO and HBO On Demand , in the rest of Asia .
Describing the collaboration as a “ good marriage ” of combining resources from both HBO Asia and Hulu Japan , Kam said that the partnership was a “ natural progression ” for the network to embark on , as Japanese content has always been well received across the region .
However , she also highlighted the challenges in managing content distribution to more than 20
|
❝ We ’ re in an age of viewers finding the service instead of accommodating to them , and our job is to create even more compelling content so that they will be drawn to us .❞
— Jessica Kam , Senior Vice-President , HBO Asia Original Production
countries , as each country has its own language , culture and religion . She explained : “ The challenges we face in Asia is very different from what my counterparts in the US will be facing — the US is big but is also more homogeneous . This is why I stressed a lot on genres because genres communicate clearly , and the key is picking the genres that travel better , regionally
and globally .
“ At HBO Asia , our team picks the best content that we believe will travel . Because as HBO Asia becomes more sophisticated as a brand , a channel and a content provider , we have to evolve . We have to tell more authenticated stories by going deeper , more locally , and that ’ s where I see as the next era of HBO Asia .”
|
|
White Paper @ www . apb-news . com
v AI to ROI : When playback means payback
This white paper from IBM Watson Media examines how artificial intelligence ( AI ) video applications can unearth opportunities to improve margins , achieve efficiencies and produce notable return-on-investment ( ROI ) results .
Visit www . apb-news . com for the latest trends and technologies in broadcasting .
|
n JANUARY
January 14 - 16 CABSAT 2018 Dubai World Trade Center www . cabsat . com
n FEBRUARY
February 27 - March 1 BVE 2018 Excel London , UK www . bvexpo . com
n MARCH
March 5 - 8 ABU DIGITAL BROADCASTING SYMPOSIUM 2018 Malaysia www . abu . org . my
|
n APRIL
April 5 - 7 VIETNAM INT ’ L BROADCAST & AV SHOW ( VIBA 2018 ) Hanoi International Exhibition Center , Vietnam www . vibashow . com
April 7 - 12 NAB SHOW 2018 Las Vegas , Nevada , USA www . nabshow . com
n MAY
May 15 - 18 KOBA 2018 COEX Exhibition Centre , Seoul , South Korea www . kobashow . com
|
n JUNE
June 26 - 28 BROADCASTASIA2018 Suntec Singapore www . broadcast-asia . com /
June 26 - 28 COMMUNICASIA2018 Marina Bay Sands , Singapore www . communicasia . com /
n SEPTEMBER
September 13 - 18 IBC 2018 RAI Amsterdam The Netherlands www . ibc . org
|
n OCTOBER
October 9 - 11 APSCC 2018 Venue to be confirmed www . apscc . or . kr
October 30 - November 1 CASBAA CONVENTION 2018 Hong Kong www . casbaaevent . com / events / casbaa-convention-2018 /
n NOVEMBER
November 14 - 16 INTER BEE 2018 Makuhari Messe , Tokyo , Japan www . inter-bee . com
|