Cora Yim has a date with a vampire, a heart full of royal love, an eye on a Korean princess and a ticket for a train to Busan with a stop at Seoul station. The vision, says FOX Networks Group (FNG) Asia’s senior vice president, Chinese Entertainment, is “being the destination for premium Chinese content”. The vision’s extension is to deliver premium Chinese content to global audiences. “FNG is becoming a bridge between China and the world,” Yim says.

Driving the domestic Asian programming agenda for a group at the height of its original content power after 25 years in the region, Yim is also tapping Korea’s IP power, with shows such as Go Princess Go, a 2015 Chinese time travel web/gender identity series, created by China’s LeEco and being adapted for Korea with production house V Plus.

This is in addition to the acquisition in September of first and exclusive Singapore rights to three record-breaking Korean box office hits – The Wailing, the animated Seoul Station and train-bound zombie thriller Train to Busan – from Clover Films for STAR Chinese Movies (SCM).

And she’s pushing the syndication envelope, negotiating, for example, exclusive global rights (outside of China) to US$50+-million epic period series, Ruyi’s Royal Love in the Palace, from mainland Chinese production house New Classics Media (NCM).

Yim beat out fierce competition for the Ruyi deal, said by insiders after the June announcement to be possibly the biggest bet FNG has made on Chinese content ever. Supporters said at the time that it underlined the network’s confidence in premium mainland content.

The 90-episode Ruyi’s Royal Love in the Palace, a sequel to 2011’s Empresses in the Palace, was FNG’s first epic period drama acquisition for markets outside China. Previous TV/film deals with NCM have been contemporary titles Tiger Mom, May December Love 2, Go Lala Go 2 and Meet Miss Anxiety. The series, which started production in August, will air on FNG’s flagship general entertainment service, STAR Chinese Channel; in China, the show will air on Dragon TV and Jiangsu TV and stream on Tencent.

FNG’s original content slate includes sci-fi comedy series, My Date with a Vampire, a remake of the 1998 cult classic acquired last year from defunct Hong Kong broadcaster Asia Television (ATV). Rights were part of an 840-hour drama acquisition from the desperate-for-cash network.

While Chinese drama budgets and production values can now equal those of U.S./Hollywood series, a challenge in executing heroriginal ambitions is the mismatch between mainland China demand and production talent. Yim says there is “definitely” not enough talent to drive the boom. Political tension between China and Korea overa new missile defence shield is expected to take a further toll.

Yim says she is tapping U.S. and European scriptwriters and leveraging FNG relationships to drive new projects. “We’re trying to use FNG worldwide resources and partners to help our Chinese content business,” she says, adding: “We are mixing our skill sets and resources because we see Chinese and Korean will dominate Asian channels and content”.

Published on 30 September 2016