Drama, movies, animation and formats rule buyers’ shopping list for 2019, according toContentAsia’s latest Buyer Poll. 72% of the buyers listed drama as their top priority, followed by movies at 56%.

2018 looks like it will end with Asia’s formats biz up on last year. Thailand and Korea are the big winners for format rights holders, followed by India. Volume is way down in Vietnam compared to last year, but the market remains the region’s biggest buyer of formats by far.

Fremantle was Asia’s top formats distributor this year, closing October with 60 formats either on air in 2018 or commissioned for 2019, and maybe a couple more before the year is out.

Lots to love about Singapore, which rules December because of the Singapore Media Festival and the ATF programme market. Chicken rice. Mee siam. Char kway teow. The white tiger at the zoo. Spago. Media, um, maybe. Depends on the day and who has the mic.

Key territories: Pay-TV channel & content providers (total revenue growth % CAGR)

Smita Singh was doing a screenwriting course at the Film and Technical Institute of India (FTII) in Pune. The script written at the end of the course is a writer’s calling card, and Chaitanya Hegde, partner at India-based talent agency Tulsea, came calling.