Fox International Channels (FIC) has confirmed FremantleMedia as the production house for the fourth season of Asia’s Next Top Model (ContentAsia, 25 August 2015). The show will air in 2016.
The Singapore-based FremantleMedia is the fourth production house to have taken on the CBS Studios format for FIC’s female-focused StarWorld channel.
Production houses were asked to pitch for season four. FremantleMedia won the pitch.
If FIC has played musical chairs with production houses on the show, sponsors have been more stable. Subaru and Zalora are back for season four, FIC said during the ContentAsia Summit in Singapore.
Asia’s Next Top Model is the first major regional production under newly appointed executive vice president and head of content and communications, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, Keertan Adyanthaya.
Adyanthaya said during the ContentAsia Summit that 2016 would be “very challenging” against a backdrop of major industry change. “We will have to really stretch our wits to get through,” he said.
Adyanthaya is pointing FIC’s creative teams in the drama/scripted direction in addition to game show/competition formats.
“There’s a lot more drama, fiction, scripted that can be created in our region, not only in local languages but also in English, or even formats that emanate from Asia to the rest of the world,” he said.
He also said rights in the OTT space were misunderstood by both buyers and sellers in Asia and other regions. “People seem to have different ideas of what OTT means to them and their customer. That needs to evolve much more quickly... there’s a hunger for the fast buck in the way rights are being bought and sold and not on the long term impact of how this will carry forward”.