Independent UK companies look to co-production with Thai media firms
DESPITE BEING faced with a series of uncertainties, the Thai broadcasting industry remains attractive for overseas content distributors – and a group of independent British film and entertainment production houses have recently jumped on the bandwagon.
Hosted by the British Embassy in Bangkok, the UK’s Producers Alliance for Cinema and Television (PACT) held its first event in Thailand – “TV in Digital Era: A UK Perspective” – on Tuesday to meet local media and potential content buyers, including free-to-air TV stations and content producers. The event was aimed at providing a broader view of British content distribution, particularly by independent producers. Local broadcasters were largely familiar with British broadcasters as major content providers via entities such as the BBC, the ITV network, Channel 4 and Channel 5.
Dawn McCarthy-Simpson, PACT’s director of market development, said the alliance was a trade association representing and promoting the commercial interests of independent feature film, television and entertainment production companies.
“Intellectual property [IP] ownership has evolved and transformed the UK’s independent production sector, and PACT negotiates with all major broadcasters in this regard, she said.
Underlining the commercialising of IP, she pointed to some of the success stories of PACT members.
The TV detective series “Sherlock”, for example, has been sold to more than 200 countries and territories, as has the “Downtown Abbey” series, while reality-TV music competition “The X-Factor” – created by Simon Cowell – has reached an audience of more than 500 million worldwide.
McCarthy-Simpson said TV-programme format development had also been shifting from the traditional to the unscripted format as used in some types of drama.
“We were quite surprised that the Turkish drama format had become much more popular across the globe, resulting in Turkey becoming a top-five TV-content exporter, after the US, the UK, France and Canada, respectively,” she added.
She also told Tuesday’s audience that the transition to digital broadcasting had presented a big challenge for the UK, and now Thailand was on the same path, particularly in linear TV broadcasting service as a result of the arrival of video-on-demand service.
However, despite being challenged by this new digital-based service, TV broadcasting still dominates audience share in each country, while brands also need television to reach mass audiences, she explained.
That said, advertisers are seeking new ways to reach target audiences, while traditional advertising seems to be less important, she said.
“TV broadcasters and content producers must better understand the needs of brands to co-produce the right content suited to the target audience,” the PACT executive stressed, adding that the alliance’s members could help Thai broadcasters deal with this new challenge.
Ben Haines, sales executive at Scorpion TV, said his company was currently discussing with NOW26 digital-TV station the opportunity of distributing documentaries and other non-fiction shows in Thailand. “This is my first time in Thailand, and in Asia, to explore opportunity,” he said.
PACT’s introduction to the Kingdom is targeted at local content producers and TV broadcasters in terms of co-production, rather than selling TV formats.
