Streaming platforms are on anoriginal roll in Asia, partly because some have cottoned onto Netflix’s habit of calling acquisitions “originals” but also because many are truly deeply commissioning and crafting their own programmes.

Titles announced in the past month include a few firsts, taking the industry into new creative spaces and experimenting with form and formats.

In a newfound spirit of collaboration, Singapore’s Mediacorp and Hong Kong’s HK Television Entertainment unveiled their first co-production, “Bluetick”, a 20-part half-hour drama, scheduled to stream in September across Mediacorp platform, Toggle, and HK Television Entertainment’s ViuTV.

The show, currently filming in Hong Kong, Singapore and mainland China, is based on Hong Kong writer Ray Leung’s novel about 10 strangers who attend the funeral of a common friend.

Murder and mystery follow.

The cast includes Hong Kong’s Wong You Nam and Liu Kai Chi, and Singapore’s Desmond Tan and Ya Hui. In Malaysia, Media Prima’s streaming platform, tonton, premieres two original movies this year.

The Ming Ting’s “I Remember” drops in May and YouTuber Jinny Boy’s second original for tonton is scheduled for release in November 2018.

Viu India, meanwhile, is going great guns, with, among other shows, original romcom, “Love, Lust and Confusion”, a 13-episode weekly show about a young girl in an age of indecisiveness, physical exploration and confusion; the title debuted on17 March.

Viu India’s big April moment is theatrical feature film “High Jack”, a co-production with Bollywood’s Phantom Film. The India originals are driven by country head, Vishal Maheshwari, who, among other projects, greenlit the first Indian version of CBS format “Hollywood Squares” for the streaming platform.

Originally published in the print issue published for the Asia Pacific Pay TV Operators Summit (APOS) in Bali in April 2018