APRIL 2019: Asia closed 2018 with 337 formats on air or commissioned across the region. Thailand was the biggest winner, topping the list with 70 titles. Vietnam came in second, but the win is a bit hollow given the volume of previous years.

Netflix premiered Taiwan’s Green Door globally at the weekend (16 March), saying the addition of the Mandarin title to its global slate increased “diversity and breadth of content”.

Korea’s epic drama battles continue, with intense competition among an increasing number of channels and expanding drama slots. On any given week, more than 20 premium long-form dramas compete for attention.

Discovery’s HGTV publicly joined the Thaole Entertainment family in Vietnam at a ceremony in Ho Chi Minh City this month, digging in on its channel bouquet split between rival distributors Q.Net, which distributes Discovery-branded channels, and Thaole, which distributes former Scripps channel, A

New Korean drama, The Light in Your Eyes, climbed to a 3.743% nationwide rating this week, lighting up the Monday night 9.30pm slot for cable broadcaster JTBC. In Seoul, the fantasy romance hit 4.638% (source: AGB Nielsen).

2019 is the year of the channel re/reset. For real. Asia’s channels environment at the moment is all about newbies with realistic expectations.