1 April 2015: The Asia's Got Talent premiere in March kicked off a year of regional mega-formats in Asia, adding an estimated US$16 million into the region's original production purse, and boosting optimism that what works will be repeated... and be even bigger.The FremantleMedia talent show on Sony Pictures Television (SPT) Networks Asia's AXN on 12 March was followed two weeks later by the third season of CBS Studios' Asia's Next Top Model (and the first by Singapore-based Beach House Pictures), which premiered on Wednesday, 25 March, on Fox International Channels' female-focused Star World. Asia's Next Top Model will air for 13 weeks in prime time (8.45pm), with the finale on 17 June. Asia's Got Talent runs to 14 May.Coming later this year are NBCUniversal's How Do I Look for female-focused entertainment channel Diva, scheduled for the third quarter of this year. How Do I Look? has been commissioned from NBCUni-owned Matchbox Asia.Later this year, A+E Networks Asia's long-awaited MasterChef Asia will air on Lifetime. The 15-episode cooking talent series is being produced in Asia by Endemol Southeast Asia, the Endemol Shine Group's Singapore-based production unit.Between them, the four new regional series add a little more than 52 hours of original video content on air across Asia, many multiples of that in encore telecasts, and countless hours of online audience engagement in a market clamouring for local relevance and pay-TV platforms demanding original shows.All four represent significant local production milestones for the broadcasters involved. This includes Fox International Channels, which has switched production houses for each of the three seasons of Asia's Next Top Model. Season three was commissioned from Beach House Pictures in Singapore. All eyes are now on comparing the latest season with the first two. The other three titles are all firsts in the region, with well-known international versions paving their way. In Lifetime's case, MasterChef versions from Australia, New Zealand and Canada make up significant proportions of Asian schedules. The New Zealand version, for example, dominated the female-focused Lifetime channel schedules in the first week of February and of March, taking 38% of the 7pm to midnight schedule across the two grids. Prem Kamath, A+E Networks' deputy managing director, Asia Pacific, says MasterChef Asia is the Singapore-based regional network's most significant local commission to date. He added that the series "marks an important milestone" for the network, which last year produced local reality series, Mom's Time Out, with Wonderland Pictures. The docu-reality show (three mothers go on a luxury holiday, leaving dads in charge of the kids) aired on Lifetime at prime time (9pm) on Thursdays.MasterChef budgets have not been confirmed but few would be surprised if the series came in much below US$3 million.First of the four to air, Asia's Got Talent set the ratings bar high, likely beating premiere episodes of previous AXN formats, and boosting optimism that record-breaking production spend will pay off for everyone. AXN has not confirmed ratings comparisons with its previous formats.Asia's Got Talent, which premiered with a two-hour prime-time special on Thursday, 12 March, topped its slots in Southeast Asia's three measured markets - Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines (source: Kantar Media Singapore/ Philippines, AGBNMR Malaysia, supplied by AXN). SPT Networks Asia said the debut delivered 10x the rating of the next English-language general entertainment channel in all three places.The premiere topped all English-language channels on pay-TV platform Astro in Malaysia, dominating the timeslot with more than 80% share across all English-language general entertainment channels.In the Philippines, AXN was the number one English-language general entertainment channel during the broadcast, and placed second among all pay-TV channels.In Singapore, the show drove AXN to the top English-language general entertainment channel for the night.And in Taiwan, Asia's Got Talent was the day's top programme among international general entertainment channels with a 79% share, and was the top-rated programme of the day in this set. The series airs on Friday nights at 9pm in Taiwan, with the premiere on Friday, 13 March.The final performance (120 minutes) airs on 7 May, with the 120-minute results show broadcast live on 14 May from Marina Bay Sands in Singapore. The three semi-final shows (90 minutes each) were filmed on 18, 21 and 24 March for broadcast on 16, 23 and 30 April.Covering 15 markets across the region, including Mongolia and Sri Lanka, Asia's Got Talent notches up numerous firsts - the world's biggest talent show by country, the first regional talent show of its kind in Asia, the most expensive in Asia in its category, and the most logistically complicated format ever. It's also SPT Networks Asia's first original production broadcast live, and the Singapore-based network's first performance-based talent show.And then there's online media. Dee Kosh - one-time notorious (and now just plain celeb) YouTube star - was brought on board as the dedicated digital host, another first for Got Talent in Asia. Rushit Jhaveri, FremantleMedia Asia's vice president, brand licensing, says thedecision to go with a different host online was driven, among other things, by the desire to deliver a different experience. "We went after someone who is already big in the space, and are allowing him to host in his own style," Jhaveri says. By the time Asia's Got Talent premiered, the show's Facebook page had 100,000 Facebook likes, rising to 135,000 on the eve of episode two. The live half-hour Facebook chat session with all four judges - a first in Asia - on 17 March had almost 68,000 likes in less than 24 hours. In addition, a branded app offers behind-the-scenes content and allows the audience to play along. In partnership with Facebook, FremantleMedia is also, among other things, creating a voting tool that will allow users to vote on Facebook, Jhaveri says. The Asia's Got Talent love was spread deep and wide. For Malaysia'sentertainment/media company Astro, Asia's Got Talent was the first significant third-party production contract since the August 2014 deal to provide production services at Pinewood Iskandar Studios in Malaysia. The agreement between Astro Productions and Pinewood Iskandar Studios involves 18,000 production hours over five years.Astro Productions provided broadcast equipment and technical crew for the eight-day Asia's Got Talent shoot in Malaysia earlier this year. Having delivered more than 1,000 hours of content, the production team decamped to Marina Bay Sands in Singapore in March for the semi-finals and will also be involved in the grand finale on 14 May.Astro Malaysia Holdings' chief executive, Rohana Rozhan, says the production "is in harmony with our aspiration to bring together Asian and Malaysian talent, local and global producers, global networks, and Pinewood Iskandar with the common objective of producing exceptional television'.In addition to driving AXN's Thursday night schedules, Asia's Got Talent has been adapted for four local markets, with local host links in India, Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand. Local terrestrial stations in three of the markets - Indonesia's Anteve on Sunday nights, Thailand's Channel 3 and Vietnam's VTV-6 - air the show with their own host links 70 hours after AXN. Viewers in local markets can participate in the voting.The fourth local broadcaster is VH1, a sister channel to mass-market Hindi general entertainment channel Colors, which is part of Viacom's pay-TV joint venture for India. Asia's Got Talent does not air on AXN's India feed.As the show went to air, the biggest challenges all round seemed to be cost and logistics and, for some, whether there was enough variety in the talent able to cross Asia's diverse cultural boundaries. In the end, the show's geographic spread involved 240 hopefuls, friends and family members - some of whom didn't have passports before Got Talent talent-hunters came along - flying in to Malaysia's Pinewood Iskandar Studios for auditions."No stone was left unturned to find talent," says FremantleMedia's Asia managing director, Paul O'Hanlon, who spent two years at least making the regional version happen. O'Hanlon, oft heard insisting on world-class production standards, says a highlight is the talent diversity and quality the hunt unearthed.The scope of entries went beyond original hopes. "There's a perception of Asians as more reserved," says SPT Networks Asia's senior vice president and general manager, H.K. Ang.Choosing talent across borders brought challenges of its own. "We know people will be watching the balance quite closely", says SPT Networks Asia's executive director of production, Derek Wong. "We didn't want one country or one genre to dominate," he adds.Acts that made the first cut included extreme tambourine player Gonzo, Double Dutch and Time Machine from Japan, opera singer Toshanbor Singh from India, 10-year-old singer Gwen Dorado from the Philippines, Thai percussion group Tatueng Mong, and Taiwanese singer Li Yongcong.There was little doubt from the start that Asia's Got Talent would go way beyond anything any regional broadcaster in Asia had spent on a format before. Budgets have never been disclosed, but the number in cash and in kind could top US$8 million."Given the size of the investment and for a project like this to be able to achieve the financial goal, we needed to think out the box," Ang says. Among other elements, this generated the free-TV involvement in Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and India. "We are addressing a market where free TV and pay TV have the opportunity to cover a different segment of the audience," Ang adds.Perhaps the most speculated-about aspect of the long-running negotiations was Sony's appetite for the risks involved in being so ambitious. The day after the show premiered, Ang said he was happy with the sponsorship secured by both SPT's in-house team and the team at FremantleMedia out of Singapore. "Of course as a business person there is never enough, but I'm happy..." And that was before the ratings came in.ContentAsia Issue 1, 2015