Asian continued to flex its storytelling muscle in 2023. 2024 could be tougher, but the storytelling skills gained as the premium space expands? Those can’t be rebottled.

This time last year, we listed nine things on our watch list for 2023. Among these were Southeast Asia’s upsized story-telling initiatives, the evolving alliances between programmers and platforms, and the distribution manoeuvering as the difficulty of a direct-to-consumer model sunk in. 12 months ago, hopes were high that the pandemic recovery was underway, and travel was coming back. We were watching the rise of LGBTQ+ programming; Korea’s obsession with the international (read U.S.) market; the effort by producers everywhere to hang onto some of their rights/IP instead of giving everything away in return for full production funding; formats fortunes in Asia; consolidation, led by the Zee/Sony merger in India; and, of course and as always, production budgets.  

Here’s what happened... 

▶ Upgraded story-telling definitely happened and continues, and not only in Korea, where the release of Korean blockbusters like Doona! makes competitors tremble. Poster titles in the up-sized storytelling space in Southeast Asia include Cattleya Killer from ABS-CBN International Productions, which premiered on Prime Video globally in June, with Bagman on its way.  

In early November, Kamila Andini and Ifa Isfansyah’s Cigarette Girl (Gadis Kretek) by Base Entertainment premiered on Netflix worldwide, capturing audiences in its home market immediately and rising to the global non-English top 10 by its second week.  

This was followed about a week later by 10-episode Taiwanese original, At The Moment, an anthology about love/intimacy during the pandemic. The Netflix original series, executive produced by Nick Tai with five directors and stars plucked from a who’s who of Taiwanese blockbusters, became Taiwan’s #2 for the week of 6-12 Nov, rising to #1 for 13-19 Nov.    

There’s also India’s The Railway Men: The Untold Story of Bhopal 1984, which premiered to a place on Netflix’s top 10 global non-English a hot minute after its release.  

The pursuit of global streaming sales is not without its risks (witness the 50+ Taiwan TV ‘orphans’, completed without platform commitment and still not picked up). But even so, creators’ determination to tell better more universal tales continues. 

Meanwhile, scripted adaptations are enjoying unprecedented attention, led by Korea and Japan. As this magazine went to print, Hong Kong-based Asian streaming platform, Viu, deepened its production relationship with the Philippines’ ABS-CBN, announcing a local adaptation of 2018 K-drama, What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim. The romcom, scheduled to release in 2024, is the fourth adaptation between ABS-CBN and Viu after The Broken Marriage Vow (Doctor Foster), the Philippines’ version of Studio Dragon’s Flower of Evil; and an adaptation of Unbreak my Heart (2023) with ABS-CBN and GMA Network. 

In Japan, Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) was counting down to the 27 November premiere of the Korean adaptation of 1995 Japanese drama, Tell Me That You Love Me, a 16-episode Studio Genie original for streaming platform, Genie TV (formerly Olleh TV) and cable service Ena, as well as on Disney+ worldwide (ex-China).

What happens to Asian storytelling in 2024? As we enter the new year, funding is tougher, streaming pick ups are less certain, and domestic broadcasters have advertising/revenue issues. But the storytelling skills gained? Those can’t be rebottled.  

▶ At the end of 2022, we put the channel/platform balance of power on our watchlist for 2023. In an inexplicable moment of restraint, we described the relationships as “evolving”. 10/10 for understatement on this one. 

2023 turned out to be a year of high drama, with linear relationships all over the map, some wins and turnarounds, and a few decisions that mean this world is never going to be even remotely the same, ever. 

The question for 2024 is the shape of the new world. Starting with the good stuff: the launch in 2024 of Hong Kong-based Chinese programmer, Celestial Tiger Entertainment’s (CTE) standalone app. The app expands CTE’s Chinese entertainment footprint from its long-held movie roots into the streaming space for the first time. The strategy leverages CTE’s strong partnerships in the region as well as its strengths in curation, honed over the past 20 years in delivering Chinese movies to audiences in Asia. The app will carry movies from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan with some Singapore titles. Among these are edgier titles that cannot be streamed on linear channels.

There’s also Shitiz Jain’s Eazie TV, which has gathered about 75 linear channels with some on-demand access for a single price. The aim is to create a simple, easy-to-use, go-to space for consumers, as well as an entertainment platform that telcos can bundle with mobile/broadband services. Eazie TV launched in Singapore in August 2023, and rollouts are in discussion across the region.       

But that came later. For linear channels and platforms, the year didn’t begin so well. Exactly six weeks in, on Valentine’s Day 2023, Hong Kong’s i-Cable – one of pioneers in the business – said it was killing its 30-year-old pay-TV platform. The decision pulled the rug out from under approx 180 linear channels that had called i-Cable home for like ever.  

i-Cable cited Hong Kong’s “rapidly changing media landscape” along with “fierce competition among global pay-TV content providers and pay-TV operators” as reasons for the decision. Detractors said i-Cable had long taken its eye off the cable-TV ball. By 1 June, the service went dark. i-Cable’s decision was described by regional channel programmers as “the end of an era” and a “big set-back” for Asia’s pay-TV ecosystem. 

2023 was also the year Warner Bros Discovery (WBD), KC Global Media and sports network beIN finally got fed up enough with not being paid in Indonesia to make a call.  

In May 2023, WBD pulled its bouquet of 14 channels off Indonesia’s largest platform, MNC, ending decades-long affiliate arrangements. The dramatic decision involved channels from HBO and Cartoon Network to Discovery and TLC, all of which went dark on 12 May. WBD’s move followed a decision in November 2022 by Qatari sports network beIN to exit MNC.  

Regional channels operator, KC Global Media, followed mid-2023, pulling its services off Indonesian pay-TV platform, Transvision, citing ongoing payment failures. The channels – including AXN, which is among Asia’s most popular brands, and anime channel Animax – went dark at midnight on 12 July.

The darkness continued. In August, a total of 16 channels from multiple suppliers exited Singapore platform Singtel TV from 1 October – 12 as a result of “low viewership” and another four due to Disney’s decision to shutter its linear services. The mass exodus included a few Discovery channels, some from Warner, and a few Love Nature channels as well as two NDTV Indian channels. At the same time, Singtel picked up Rock Entertainment’s Rock Action, showing that its pull back from video entertainment is not as complete as some fear. 

There were other shifts here and there as distribution agreements were renewed (or not) and platforms adjusted their strategies and offerings. These showed ongoing confidence in the traditional pay-TV space. 

In Malaysia, WBD dismantled years of HBO exclusivity in a September deal with Telekom Malaysia’s Unifi TV, which is now carrying nine channels + on-demand platform HBO Go. 

As Disney continued to disappear the old Fox/Star channels in Asia, Philippines’ pay-TV platform Cignal filled the gap from October 2023 with, among others, Rewind Networks’ Hits Now, which launched in February 2023. 

Also in Singapore, StarHub welcomed two Warner Bros Discovery channels – Discovery and HGTV – back onto the platform in October, five years after the 2018 high-profile bustup that saw seven Discovery channels and three of the old Scripps channels go dark.  

The love started much earlier in the year. In May, WBD said HBO channels were returning to Singtel-affiliated Thai telco, AIS, for the first time in three years, joining other WBD channels in an expanded carriage deal. The new agreement followed years of musical chairs for HBO, which jumped from True to AIS to Triple T/3BB and now back to AIS.

By many accounts, pay-TV affiliate fees continue to be squeezed as traditional platforms struggle to hold onto subscribers. Meanwhile, “transformation” is the holy grail. This is playing out in a rush to aggregate video streaming apps. Commercial terms of these deals aren’t being disclosed. From the outside though, what they’re doing pretty much looks like pay-TV 2.0, rather than a radical new world.

▶ Published in ContentAsia December 2023 magazine