ATF: "Streaming the Future"

The focus remains to keep Asia at the forefront of content creation, while it provides a robust academic line up with panels, pitching and special events. From the 800 participants in the first edition to more than 5,500 this year, ATF has evolved with the APAC media and content business. 

Yeow Hui Leng, Group Project Director of ATF & Market and ScreenSingapore, Reed Exhibitions: ‘In our position as a global marketplace for international content that is located strategically in Asia, we bring together global players and content, both big established and up-and coming names. In line with the overall event theme of “Streaming the Future”, we expect a strong turnout of digital platforms from Asia and beyond, amongst the thousands of delegates seeking to acquire knowledge, network, buy, sell, finance, distribute and coproduce’.

‘Our progress is seen in how we have constantly introduced new elements. The ATF Summit first came into being in 2012, for instance. In 2016, 2017 and 2018, we introduced the ATF Formats, Animation and Chinese Pitches respectively, to give budding creators three premier platforms to expose their content for development in and out of the region’, she concludes.

Today, December 3, the ATF Leader’s Summit brings on stage Gong Yu, Founder & CEO of iQIYI (China), Shibasish Sarkar, Group CEO of Reliance Entertainment (India), and Giorgio Stock, President, WarnerMedia Entertainment Networks, Distribution & AD Sales (EMEA & APAC).

Another strategic section of ATF are the Pitchs. This year, the market offers three: the ATF Animation Pitch, ATF Formats Pitch and ATF Chinese Pitch that help kickstart and finance projects from the region and the world. Co-organised by Green Gold Animation (India), the winners of the first one receives a USD 19,000 prize (USD 2,500 cash award + consultancy package for USD 16,500), while the second event offers S$3,500 in cash to develop the idea, and third (in partnership with GHY Culture & Media) delivers USD 2,500 to help kick-start their projects, and could even be offered a USD 11,000 buyout of their script.

Asia Pacific is an ever evolving region in all concepts: it is one step ahead of many global territories thanks to its size, but also for the big technological developments that are impacting in new ways of content consumption. With digital disrupting the traditional value chain, the changing content consumption patterns and an increased competition among streaming platforms, this year’s market theme highlights the event resolute to continue growing with, and overcome future challenges with the industry.

OTT has been an industry buzzword in recent years and its popularity in Asia Pacific continues to rise. ResearchAndMarkets.com reported earlier this year in the Asia Pacific OTT TV and Video Forecasts report, that Asia Pacific OTT TV episode and movie revenues are expected to hit a cumulative revenue of USD 48 billion by 2024, a significant increase from the USD 21 billion aggregated up to 2018.

Fabricio Ferrara, from Singapore