Vietnam, Thailand and China lead Asia’s formats market this year. The three markets account for a combined share of 49% (102 titles) of the total 208 shows on air, in production or commissioned for broadcast in 2017/2018, according to ContentAsia’s Formats Outlook for Q1 2017.

Asked what they think is the one thing that will make the most difference to their business this year, media execs with Asian businesses are, probably unsurprisingly, pretty much united around (1) content of all shapes and forms, with both a local angle and global legs, more creatively fund- ed a

Japan, the world’s second largest content market after the U.S., stands to benefit most from China’s current freeze on all things Korean, including (much to Korea’s dismay) drama series that were fetching US$400,000 or US$450,000 an episode.

Fuji Television

Nippon TV takes a film version of TV crime drama, The Last Cop, to theatres in Japan in May, driving even further the multi-platform agenda that has so far straddled free-to-air broadcast and SVOD streaming.

Japanese broadcaster Fuji TV is staking out a stronger global footprint, leveraging the successes of formats such as Iron Chef and Hole in the Wall and maximising the new distribution opportunities of the digital/ streaming environment.