Asia’s appetite for formats has plummeted in the last four years, although there is still lively interest in scripted formats for markets with fierce streaming competition and game shows remain a favourite genre. ContentAsia’s latest Formats Outlook looks at the state of the formats business in Asia for full-year 2021.

Asia’s formats business has shifted dramatically in the past four years, ending 2021 at its lowest volume since 2018, according to the new edition of ContentAsia’s Formats Outlook tracking 18 countries across Asia. 

For full-year 2021, we counted 168 formats on air or commissioned in 18 countries, compared to at least 228 in 2020 (226 of these were in 18 countries and two were for the Asia region).

Most of the 26.3% drop in volume for 2020/2021 can be attributed to Covid-19 containment measures and the aftershocks of the pandemic.

But as much as we’d like to blame Covid for all of the devastation and more, the annual slide in volume preceded the pandemic.

Between 2018 and 2021, the number of formats on air or commissioned halved, with 169 titles dropped from what once was a bumper roster of 337 titles.

The highest year-on-year drop in the last three years was in 2020, with 26.9% or 84 fewer formats than in 2019. Between 2018 and 2019, Asia lost 25 (or 7.4%) of its formats. 

INDIA

India surged ahead by volume in 2021, overtaking traditional leaders – Vietnam and Thailand – as the region’s top formats market with at least 36 titles. 

The pole position is, however, more about the sudden and rapid decline in Vietnam and Thailand than it is about major changes in take up in India. 

On average, India had 35 titles a year for the past three years: 36 in 2018, 42 in 2019 and at least 29 in 2020. Between 2018 and 2020, India ranked third among the 18 countries covered in the report.

Of India’s 36 adaptations in 2021, 11 were scripted adaptations, driven by a manic appetite for premium drama series. As producers rise to the demands of streaming services in Asia’s most fiercely contested SVOD market, drama adaptations are in free flow, including Applause Entertainment/BBC Studios India’s psychological thriller "Rudra: The Edge of Darkness" (based on "Luther"); dark comedy "Aafat-E-Ishq", the adaptation of Hungarian film "Liza, the Fox Fairy" by Zee Studios; and Netflix/Banijay Rights’ comedy "Call My Agent: Bollywood" (based on the French TV series "Call My Agent!") are flowing freely. 

Nevertheless, reality remained India’s dominant formats genre in 2021 with 17 (47%) of the 36 titles. Ten of these were variations of Banijay Rights’ "Big Brother", giving Banijay the lion’s share of India’s formats market with a total of 16 titles. 

Ranked by distributor, Banijay Rights is followed by BBC Studios India, which has six scripted titles streaming/commissioned/in production in India, and ABS-CBN Philippines, which licensed five movie titles to India’s Global One Studios in October last year.

The last show to slip into 2021 was Discovery+ India’s debut of wedding format, "Say Yes to the Dress", which features 16 brides-to-be in a search for their dream wedding dress. The show, produced by India’s ABP Studios, premiered on 8 December 2021, returning the property to the market five years after its regional Asia debut on Discovery’s TLC channel in 2017.

Drama ranked second in India with 11 titles, driven by six formats by BBC Studios, including second and third seasons of thriller/legal drama "Criminal Justice India" commissioned by Disney+ Hotstar and mystery/thriller "Bloody Brothers", a remake of the British series "Guilt". "Bloody Brothers" premiered on 18 March 2022 on global streamer Zee5.

Movies ranked third with six titles out of the 36, driven by five remakes of Philippines’ ABS-CBN Film Productions. The films are "Barcelona: A Love Untold", "Can’t Help Falling in Love", "Crazy Beautiful You", "She’s Dating the Gangster" and "The Hows of Us". 

VIETNAM

Vietnam trails behind India in 2021 with 30 titles on air/commissioned.

Vietnam reported on average of 56 titles in the last three years; 60 in 2018, 58 in 2019 and at least 51 in 2020, and ranked either first (in 2020 and 2019) or second (in 2018) among the 18 countries covered.

In 2021, game shows/quizzes from Banijay Rights dominated Vietnam’s formats environment. This was driven by two seasons of "Million Dollar Minute Vietnam" (season six/seven) and two seasons of "Your Face Sounds Familiar Vietnam". Both were commissioned by free-TV network VTV3.

Singing contests ranked second with three titles: two seasons of "Singer Auction Vietnam" (season three/four) acquired by VTV3 from NBCUniversal and "It Takes Two Vietnam" season five, sold to VTV3 by ITV Studios.

Talent shows ranked third with two titles; "Super 10" season two and "The Rapper", both formats acquired by HTV from Thailand’s Workpoint Group.

Banijay Rights led by volume in 2021 with six titles, followed by All3Media International and NBCUniversal with five titles each.

THAILAND

Thailand ranked third by volume among 18 countries tracked in ContentAsia’s Formats Outlook 2021, with 21 titles on air/commissioned. 

Even so, this is a long way from the highs of 2018, when we recorded 70 titles, giving Thailand an unbroken record of the market with the most format titles in a year. While this had dropped to 51 in 2019, the volume still put Thailand in the top three spots. By 2020, volume had dropped to about 37 titles, but still Thailand maintained its position as one of Asia top three markets. 

The format of the moment is the first Thai adaptation of Fremantle’s "Project Runway", scheduled to go on air in May this year as a tent pole property for JKN Global Media’s newly acquired digital free-TV channel JKN18.

Reality formats dominated activity in 2021, driven by five cooking-related titles – two seasons of "Iron Chef" (season 10/11) acquired by BBTV Channel 7 from Japan’s Fuji TV; "MasterChef Thailand" season four, acquired by BBTV Channel 7 from Banijay Rights; "Top Chef Thailand" season three, on One31 from NBCUniversal; and "Gacha Gacha Show", bought by Amarin TV from Japan’s TV Asahi.

Game shows ranked second with eight titles. Three of these were "Hollywood Game Night Thailand" (season five, six and special Super Champ edition) acquired from NBCUniversal by BEC World for free-TV broadcast service, Channel 3.

Drama (romance/comedy) was the third most popular genre, with three titles aired/commissioned in Thailand in 2021.

All three were series adapted from Korea – CJ ENM’s "Bring It On", "Ghost" and "Let’s Eat 2 Thailand", acquired by TrueVisions; and MBC’s "Switch On" ("Game Rak Salub Miti"), a remake of the Korean drama "W – Two Worlds Apart", acquired by Century UU Entertainment and premiered in November 2021 on Channel 3. 

NBCUniversal and Banijay Rights had the most formats in Thailand in 2021, with five titles each. 

PHILIPPINES

The Philippines rose to new heights in 2021, with 14 titles on air/commissioned, giving it fourth place of the 18 markets covered. In 2020, the Philippines was eighth, with nine titles, and the previous year, 2019, the market came in seventh with 16 titles. In 2018, the country ranked ninth with 14 titles. 

Five of the 14 formats were from Banijay Rights, giving the company a market share of 36%. MBC Korea, CJ ENM Korea and Fremantle had two titles each. All3Media International, BBC Studios and NBCUniversal had one title each.

By genre, game show formats dominated the Philippines’ formats landscape with six titles, followed by singing contests with four titles, and drama and reality (social experiment) with two titles each. 

2021 FORMATS BY GENRE

As it has been since at least 2018, game show/quiz formats continued their run as Asia’s most popular genre in 2021, taking 51 (30%) of the 168 titles commissioned/air during the year. 

But, like everything else in the space, volumes are down, with the most significant drop between 2019 and 2020. In 2018, Asia had 92 game shows, dropping to 89 in 2019 and 63 in 2020. 

Reality is second, with 38 titles (23%)of the year’s 168. The number two spot has remained unchanged for the past four years, albeit with much lower volumes – 65 titles in 2018, 70 titles in 2019 and 51 titles in 2020. 

In 2021, drama was, as it had been for the previous three years, at number three on the genre rankings with 32 titles (19%). This is about half of the 60 scripted titles registered in 2018. In 2020, there were 48 drama titles on our list. 

AND SO WE COME TO 2022... 

Will this year be better than last? There’s no way of telling where the pandemic will take us, but protocols are in place, production teams are back on set, streamers and competition are driving budgets up, and original shows are as much of a rage as they ever where. So there are signs of life. 

At the same time, a return to the highs of years gone by looks unlikely for 2022 and turning back the clock to the volumes of five years ago seems even more of a remote possibility.

ContentAsia’s Formats Outlook for the first half of 2017 counted 285 formats on air or in production. Vietnam led with 67 in the first six months of 2017, followed by Thailand with 42 and China with 39. 

For the first quarter of 2022, at least eight formats were added to the line up in Japan, Vietnam and Thailand, with the possible addition of a few more in the last weeks of March. 

Japan added two – "Love is Blind", a Japanese version of American reality show, which released on Netflix in three parts in February, led by local hosts Takashi Fujii and Yuka Itaya; and BBC Studios Distribution’s cooking competition show, "Bake off Japan", scheduled to premiere on Amazon Prime Video Japan in two parts – 22 April 2022 (four episodes) and 29 April 2022 (four episodes). 

"Bake off Japan", presented by local actors Maki Sakai and Asuka Kudo, is produced by Beach House Pictures, and is part of the Singapore-based production house’s regional expansion.

Vietnam also added two titles since the beginning of this year – ITV Studios’ dancing format, a sixth season of "It Takes Two Vietnam", which premieres in Q3 this year on VTV3; and NBCUniversal’s game show "Crush Vietnam" S3, produced by Bee Comm for VTV3.

Another two deals had been signed in Thailand by mid-March 2022 – TV Asahi’s game show, "31 Legged Race", commissioned by production house/media buyer, Chuo Senko; and a local adaptation of BBC Studios’ "Doctor Foster" (local title to be confirmed), commissioned by BEC World for an Autumn premiere on free-TV service, Channel 3. JSL Global Media is the producer.

Philippines added one – CJ ENM’s mystery music game show "I Can See Your Voice Philippines" S4, which premiered on 15 January this year on ABS-CBN’s Kapamilya Channel, A2Z and Kapamilya Online Live on ABS-CBN Entertainment’s YouTube channel and Facebook page, as well as Jeepney TV, iWantTFC and TFC IPTV.

India also added one title since the beginning of this year – "Mithya", the Indian adaptation of All3Media’s 2019 U.K. scripted format "Cheat", created by Two Brothers Pictures. "Mithya", produced by Applause Entertainment in association with Rose Audio Visual Production, streams on home-grown platform, Zee5. The show is directed by Rohan Sippy, stars Huma Qureshi and Avantika Dassani. 

As this magazine went to print, Netflix talked about a second season of "Love is Blind" for Japan as part of a bumper package of new Japanese content; casting is under way and the show returns in 2023. There’s also a second season of reality show reboot, "The Future Diary", by TBS In association with G-yama, which premieres this year. 

We’re expecting more scripted pick ups from India for 2022/3 as the market rushes to feed demand while building its own scripted skills. A newer trend – scripted co-developments in the footsteps of crime drama, "Connected", a Nippon TV Japan co-development with the U.K.’s Envision – could also change the fabric of Asia’s formats environment. Definitely something to look forward to. 

Published in ContentAsia April 2022 magazine