The good news for many at this year’s Busan Contents Market (BCM) in Korea’s southern port city was the election of liberal politician Moon Jae-in as the country’s new president.

This year’s APOS (Asia Pacific Video Operators Summit) by Media Partners Asia (MPA) wrapped last night with a few clear messages.

FOX Networks Group (FNG) Asia president, Zubin Gandevia, is in plus mode, adding angles to an ecosystem built up over the past two and a half decades and subtracting nothing except, perhaps, the fear that has wracked a traditional subscription video industry in decline.

A new version of the pay-TV environment is emerging – and, in the kinds of deals programmers will sign for their content, it looks pretty much the same as it used to, in the old days.

By the time APOS wraps on 27 April, a major question will be answered: Will Hong Kong Cable TV parent, i-Cable Communications, renew its pay-TV licence or not? The platform has been given an extended deadline, until Wednesday, 26 April, to make a decision.

When Korean formats producers and creators took to the stage at the MIP TV market in Cannes this month, it was with a brave face against a background of anti-Korean devastation across China that has decimated their most lucrative foreign licensing/production market ever.