Asia has more formats on air or commissioned in 2016 than ever before. But the mix is changing. Janine Stein looks the shifting landscape...

This year’s formats slate in Asia is looking very different from last year, or the year before.

On the regional pan-Asia front, big-brand, high-excitement title “The Amazing Race Asia” is back on Sony Pictures Television Networks Asia’s AXN after six years.

There’s also lots of talk about an Asia version of a mega-competition format “The Voice”, which would be a first for a regional audience.

And, although there’s been a slight delay, FOX Networks Group (FNG) is expected to make the fifth season of “Asia’s Next Top Model” official any minute. No details had been disclosed by mid-September.

At the same time, second season returns for “Asia’s Got Talent” and “MasterChef Asia” aren’t happening (yet), and we don’t think it’s because the local debuts of the two mega-formats never found audiences.

A more likely reason is that there’s just not enough regional sponsorship money or original content resources/investment to back a high-impact return of more than two or three major productions right now. There could be other reasons. Maybe the secret sauce to tapping multiple revenue streams just hasn’t been found. Or the combo regional/local/digital formula is still wrong.

Either way, it means a significant drop off from the regional highs of 2015, and a creeping realisation that the way forward will be focused more on specific markets, less on big-budget regional shows that attempt to tick so many geographies and cultures, and a whole lot on co-developing original content with legs.

A bird’s eye view of Asia shows that on the ground in almost every market, from Japan to Pakistan, there’s life in domestic shows and local versions of international titles; Global factual entertainment formats such as “Undercover Boss”, which all3media has sold to Japan, are driving new genres into Asia; Vietnam and Thailand are rocking formats, originals and brand tie-ups; China is on fire, some are loving it, others are getting burned and everyone is watching the fallout of the latest Korea-China political row.

China’s scale is, not surprisingly, driving programmers such as Discovery to take unprecedented bets; witness the US$10 million+ budget for the Bear Grylls co-pro, and season two is on its way with an even bigger budget and an all-star cast that includes former NBC star Yao Ming and Olympic swimmer Fu Yuanhui.

There is also lots of excitement around drama formats and IP co-development, and particularly the first show – “The Society Game” – out of the new CJ E&M/Endemol Shine Group alliance announced in April this year. The new 12-episode prime-time series premieres on CJ E&M’s tvN channel in the first half of October, and hopes are of pick ups in other parts of the world after Endemol Shine starts marketing the format internationally later in 2016.

The partnership was established to co-create original formats and series, with all intellectual property (IP) shared equally. CJ E&M will air whatever is made in Korea and Endemol Shine will market the titles internationally. The partnership is led by DJ Lee, president of CJ E&M’s media contents business, and Fotini Paraskakis, Endemol Shine Group’s managing director of Asian operations.

In other parts of Asia, the vibrant market in home-grown formats driving domestic ratings continues, with rights holders continuing to push an international agenda.

Among many others, titles on the international stage include Nippon TV’s “Burning Questions!” and “The Character”, which have helped the Japanese network maintain its spot at the top of Japan’s charts for all day parts and which top the Japanese broadcaster’s international sales agenda.

ContentAsia’s regular formats update for this year so far shows 258 formats on air or commissioned from January to mid-August 2016.

We’ve been a whole lot better at counting this year than last, but it looks like an average increase of more than 40% in deals signed this year over the previous year, according to data provided by formats owners and rights holders.

As of mid-August this year, Endemol Shine Group continues to top Asia’s formats charts, with 56 titles/series – 22% – of the total 258 shows on air or commissioned this year so far. FremantleMedia Asia is a close second, with 53 (21%), giving the two global giants a combined 109 series in Asia, or 42% of the region’s formats market in 2016 so far. Talpa, Keshet and all3media have a total of 37 titles, or 14% of the market.

Vietnam is the biggest country by volume, with more than 50 titles this year, followed by China, with about 40. Thailand has 35, making it the third largest market by number of titles. Cambodia has more than 20 series, including two seasons of MasterChef Cambodia as well as Who Wants to be a Millionaire Cambodia. India has 21, including Sony Pictures Television’s sitcom, Everybody Loves Raymond India and four seasons of Big Brother in various languages for different parts of India.

The Philippines has 20 series, including two seasons of all3media format Cash Cab Philippines by activeTV for Sony Pictures Television Networks Asia’s AXN Philippines feed.

Indonesia, which has consistently been a vibrant formats market, has 19 shows on air or commissioned for this year, including local versions of Talpa’s The Voice and The Voice Kids.

South Korea leads in drama adaptations. The blockbuster title of the year is Scarlet Heart, a drama co-production involving NBCUniversal and Korean media company YG Entertainment. Korea also has what could well be the longest drama format-in-waiting in Keshet International’s Prisoners of War, which has been hanging around for a couple of years with no final word yet on when, who or how.

For all that changed this year, some things didn’t. The fifth season of “Asia’s Next Top Model” is going ahead at FOX Networks Group’s (FNG) StarWorld... with a fifth production house. And thus the unintended tradition of switching to a new team every season continues. The reason this time? FremantleMedia Asia, which produced season four (the best-rated season ever), has shifted its production sights in Asia to China, India and Indonesia and dismantled its regional production team. Who will FNG go with next? We have some ideas, but, really, it’s anyone’s guess.

Updated on 12 September 2016