News

2018 Taipei International TV Market & Forum – Beneficial Results

The theme of this year’s gathering was “A new ecosystem for the TV content industry and a blossoming of cross-sectoral innovation.” In attendance at the exhibition were well-known TV stations/channels, production companies, animation production companies, OTT operator, distributors, starups of content creation, publishers, post-production firms, VR/AR firms, and related software developers, plus film assistance representatives from 7 Taiwan county/city governments as well as domestic investors. In addition, an IP/Books Adaptation Area was presented for the first time ever, providing cross-border communication and cooperation opportunities between the IP/Books and TV content industries.

To expand the scale of matchmaking activities and exploration of emerging market opportunities, in addition to inviting international buyers from Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Southeast Asia who have long had an interest in Taiwan television content, buyers from regions who have in recent years been paying special interest in Asian TV-content works were also invited – Europe, Latin America, and Western Asia. Among these, buyers from Iran, Norway, and Spain were visiting Taiwan for the first time. A total of 74 Taiwan enterprises exhibited at the event this year, and 263 TV-programming creations showcased. There were transactions for 329 works, and a total of 1,125 matchmaking meetings held over the 3-day gathering. Domestic and overseas sellers and buyers reported an accumulated 2,212 hours engaged in transaction talks, the total value of agreed transactions was US$11.64 million, and estimated extended post-exhibition transactions may reach US$23.28 million (approximately NT$700 million). The goal for this trading platform is creation of more opportunities for foreign buyers to access Taiwan-produced TV content and to engage in experience and technology interchange, and at the same time facilitate cross-border cross-platform cooperation.

Thanks to the increase this year in the number of buyer/seller enterprises and the full support of television-related industry circles, this year’s event drew a total of 4,254 visitors, and the number of professionals participating reached 3,558. Friends from across industry and academia were attracted to the grand gathering, resulting in the largest number of participants in the history of the event. This year, presented for the first time were 6 Project Pitching sessions and 1 Taipei TV Project Matching Screening session. Taiwan TV content and IP enterprises were invited to present proposals, introducing original works of excellence in development, linking the production side with the funding side, the goal being enhancement of Taiwan TV content production quantity and scale.

Seeking to stimulate internationalized viewpoints and innovative thinking, three International TV Forum sessions were staged at this year’s gathering. Specially invited to take part in Session I was Sheng Fen Hsueh, President of Jason's Entertainment Co., Ltd., Jihee KIM, Head of Format Development for CJ ENM, and Roman Lo, President of Kingshine Entertainment, Inc., who engaged in discussion on the topic “Winning formats: Creating globally popular content.” Invited for Session II was Atsushi Sogo, International Business Development President at Nippon TV, Felix To Chi Hak, Deputy General Manager of Programme and Production at Television Broadcasts Limited, and Carol Wang, Programming Dept. Vice President and Director of City Channel at Sanlih E-Television Co., Ltd., who addressed the theme “A global media strategy: Tapping global markets through program rights, transnational co-productions, and IPTV.” Participating in Session III was Hemingway Chiu, Executive Vice President at CTBC Venture Capital, Erica Wang, Vice President at PricewaterhouseCoopers Taiwan, and Tang Sheng Rong, President of Greener Grass Production, whose topic of discussion was “Inside capital markets for audiovisual products.” A total of 280 individuals attended the discussions.

This year the practice was continued of placing prominent event banners on numerous relevant official websites, such as for the Busan Contents Market (BCM), Seoul International Drama Awards (SDA), Gwangju ACE Fair, BroadCast WorldWild (BCWW),Marketplace for Film & TV in Asia (TIFFCOM), National Association of Television program Executives (NATPE), and World Content Market Moscow (WCM), promoting the Taiwan event with the widest possible range of TV content enterprise professionals around the globe.

The staging of this event will continue in future, and will continue to strengthen services in all areas. In 2019 invitations will be expanded to include buyers and venture capitalists from emerging and potential markets. A continually larger stream of funding will be introduced for Taiwan television content, and at the same time new pathways will be opened for cross-border co-funding and co-production of Taiwan creative works.