Singing-based titles, game shows and drama series topped Asia’s formats in Asia, accounting for 64% titles from Jan-June 2023; India, Vietnam and Thailand remain Asia’s leading formats markets, with a combined share of 42%, ContentAsia’s Formats Outlook for 1H 2023 shows.

Asian adaptations of 135 TV titles were aired or commissioned by broadcasters/platforms/companies in 16 countries in the first six months of this year, according to ContentAsia’s 1H 2023 Formats Outlook.

The ongoing research tracks formats adaptations commissioned/on air in 18 countries across the region, including Taiwan and Bangladesh, which reported no adaptations in the first half of this year.  

Volumes were down 20% – 34 titles – this year compared to the first half of 2022, when we reported a total of 169 titles. But this year’s total is still seven (5%) higher than in the first half of 2021, which closed at 128 titles. 

1H 2023 FORMATS BY GENRE....
Singing, game shows and scripted/drama formats continue to dominate. The three genres accounted for a combined share of 64% (85 titles) of the total 135 formats in Jan-June 2023. This has been consistent since 2017. The average combined share was 67% for the first six months of every year from 2017 to 2022 (1H 2017: 65%, 1H 2018: 62%, 1H 2019: 71%, 1H 2020: 71%, 1H 2021: 68%, 1H 2022: 65%).

Notably game shows, which dominated the formats by genre charts for 1H 2017, 1H 2018, 1H 2019, 1H 2020, 1H 2021 and 1H 2022, have now dropped to second place, giving way to singing formats.

The latest report for 1H 2023 places singing formats at the top of the list with 29 titles (22%) recorded from 11 countries: Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.

The singing format driver was Vietnam, which accounted for six (3.4%) of the 29 titles. Five countries – India, China, Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong – skipped the genre entirely.

Game shows and scripted series ran neck and neck, with 28 titles (21%) each. 

12 countries contributed to the game show count: China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam. 

Vietnam led game shows with seven (25%) of the 28 titles. Four countries had none: Singapore, Nepal, Korea and Cambodia. 

10 countries embraced drama adaptations: China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The scripted format driver was India, with 13 (46%) of the 28 titles. Mongolia, Cambodia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Hong Kong had none.

Cooking trailed with 15 titles (10%), reported from eight countries: India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Thailand, with five (33%) titles, topped the cooking formats count in the first six months of 2023.

The rest of the formats genres were reality (9), talent (8), dating (6), variety show (4), fashion/beauty (3), movie (3) and talkshow (2).

1H 2023 FORMATS BY COUNTRY.... 
Yet again, India, Vietnam and Thailand led Asia’s formats market in the first half of this year. The three markets accounted for a combined share of 47% (62 titles) of the total 135 shows commissioned/on air, according to ContentAsia’s latest Formats Outlook.

India, Vietnam and Thailand have been our regular top three/four on the formats by country charts for the past six years, with an average combined share of 48.5% (or average 104 titles) for the first six months in 2017-2022.

1H 2023 FORMATS IN INDIA...
India was Asia’s top formats market by volume in the first half of this year, with 24 titles/seasons. This is the third time since 2017 that India has topped the country charts. India reported 32 formats in 1H 2022 and 23 in 1H 2021.

Drama formats dominated as streaming platforms duel for dominance and producers rush to fast-track drama production to service demand. 13 of the 24 titles in the first half of this year were drama formats. In the first half of last year, drama made up 13 titles/seasons of the 31 total. 

New titles this year included All3Media International’s "Kafas" for Sony Liv, produced by Applause Entertainment and Madiba Entertainment; season three of Banijay Rights’ crime/thriller "Aarya", co-created by Ram Madhvani and Sandeep Modi; and two seasons of Paramount Global Content Distribution’s crime drama, "Rana Naidu", for Netflix.

Unscripted/reality formats placed second with seven titles of the 24. These included "Bigg Boss", an adaptation of Banijay Rights’ "Big Brother", in five languages on Colors, Asianet and Star Vijay as well as an OTT version on JioCinema.

The other formats were cooking (1), game (1), movie (1) and talent (1).

1H 2023 FORMATS IN VIETNAM...
Vietnam, which ranked second for the past two years (1H 2021, 1H 2022), held onto the spot for the first half of 2023, with 21 titles (16% of 135 titles). 

Game shows (also #1 in 1H 2022) were most popular.

These included Japanese broadcaster TV Asahi’s game show, "Hide and Seek with Drone", for HTV7; "Lightning Quiz" from Workpoint TV also for HTV7; and ITV Studios’ "I Love My Country" commissioned by Dong Tay Promotions Company.

Singing formats are also thriving in Vietnam, with six titles in the first half of this year.

These included two versions of Banijay Rights’ Your Face Sounds Familiar. The kids version of Your Face Sounds Familiar S5 premiered in November 2022 and ran to the end of January this year. Your Face Sounds Familiar S9 is scheduled to premiere in October this year. 

Vietnam also had three variety shows and two talent formats. The remaining three were dating, drama and fashion/beauty.  

1H 2023 FORMATS IN THAILAND...
Thailand was third behind India and Vietnam in the first half, with 17 titles (13% of 135 titles). Thailand also ranked third in 1H 2022 with 18 titles and in 1H 2021 with 15 titles.

15 of the 17 were split evenly between cooking, drama and game shows.  

These included ITV Studios’ cooking competition, Hell’s Kitchen Thailand. The show, commissioned by Heliconia H Group, premieres in September this year on free-TV station, Channel 7. Heliconia also commissioned the 12th season of the local version of Fuji TV’s cook-off, Iron Chef Thailand; the series premiered on Channel 7 in February this year.

Three of the five drama remakes in Thailand were from Korea’s CJ ENM – business/romcom Start-Up Thailand; fantasy/investigation 23:23 (the adaptation of Korean original Signal); and youth format, Thank You Teacher (the adaptation of Korean Black Dog). All three were for True ID/TrueVisions/True4U.

Game shows this year included Fremantle’s Family Feud Thailand for One31, Banijay Rights’ First and Last Thailand S5 for Workpoint TV, and NBCUniversal’s Hollywood Game Night Thailand S6 for Mono 29. The other two Thai formats were a dating title and a singing competition. 

1H 2023 vs 1H 2022...
34 titles dropped off the face of Asia’s formats earth in the first six months of this year compared to last year. Vietnam and the Philippines dropped the most, with 10 titles each.  India shed eight titles while Korea was down by seven and China by five. 

Myanmar recorded the most add ons with five titles for the first half of 2023. The rest of the countries either remained the same or dropped/added about one/two titles each. Taiwan and Bangladesh recorded none for the past three years (1H 2023, 1H 2022 and 1H 2021).

Published in ContentAsia's September 2023 magazine