1 April 2015: At least 62 formats were on air in Asia in the first three months of this year, including 18 premieres. This follows 25 premieres in the region in the last three months of 2014. From January last year to the first week of April this year, at least 209 formats had been produced and were on air in Asia or had been commissioned for 2015/6, according to the latest ContentAsia Formats research.Is this the most formats being made locally ever in the history of Asian television? Maybe. We only started tracking in January last year. Is this the most money ever spent in the history of format licensing and production in Asia? Probably. Broadcasters and production houses don't publicise their budgets, but we're making educated guesses. What we know for sure is that the effort being put into creating local versions of proven formats is way up. Entertainment formats remain most popular. Three versions of all3media's Gogglebox have premiered this year so far (China, Mongolia, Korea), the mostof any other title. The 18 format premieres we counted since January this year also include two dramas - Spy (MICE/ The Gordin Cell) in Korea and revenge drama War of Money in Japan. War of Money is based on a Seoul Broadcasting System (SBS) title out of Korea. Spy, which aired on KBS2 in Korea, is based on a Keshet International format.Reality contests remains hot. Philippines' broadcaster ABS-CBN is over the moon by the ratings of Your Face Sounds Familiar, which debuted on 14 March in a prime-time 8.30pm slot on weekends. Other reality formats that appeared on first quarter schedules include Hell's Kitchen Indonesia, Love in the Wild (Vietnam), and the fourth season of made-in-Asia format The Apartment for Fox International Channels' (FIC) Star World.By far the highest profile of the 18 are two mega regional formats - the first regional version of Asia's Got Talent and Asia's Next Top Model season three. Asia's Got Talent breaks all size and budget ceilings by far, setting new standards for everything. Asia's Next Top Model is said to have come in at less than half, but it's still being considered part of a rising and celebrated big-spender category.Next up are MasterChef Asia for A+E Networks' Lifetime and NBCUniversal's Asian version of Jeannie Mai's How Do I Look?. MasterChef Asia could be in the US$2.5 million to US$3 million range. How Do I Look? is likely to be less. Maybe US$1.2 million to US$2 million. Both premiere later this year. For newer network Lifetime, MasterChef Asia is the most significant investment to date. Universal Networks probably spent more on The Biggest Loser Asia a few years ago.Scripps Networks Interactive in Asia, too, is pushing into new territory, with a 6x30 mins Asian version of U.S. series Food Wars. Food Wars Asia's total budget is probably way less than US$500,000. The production house, though, is Endemol Southeast Asia, which says a lot about Scripps' commitment to a higher-end and more engaging way forward.Is there sponsorship/advertising support in Asia for all this? Some say not enough. Everyone talks about how hard it is out there. No one, though, says it doesn't need to be done.-JanineContentAsia Issue 1, 2015