Riding the Wave of Disruption in Asia's TV Scene

The Asian television landscape is undergoing a significant transformation, with traditional players facing stiff competition from new entrants and changing consumer habits. Amidst this disruption, Blue Ant Media is adapting to the changing market by focusing on its strengths and diversifying its business. Carlyn Staudt, EVP of Global Channels and Streaming, and Jon Penn, MD for Asia Pacific, recently sat down to discuss the company's strategy for navigating this complex market. "We've diversified between production, rights, distribution, and channels," Staudt explained. "Having a diversified portfolio in the mix as there is shifting on one or the other, you're at least able to kind of stabilize amongst it all." One key aspect of Blue Ant's strategy is its decision to establish a sales hub in Asia. This move is designed to help the company better serve its clients and capitalize on the growing demand for factual content in the region. "We've been going a year, and we've transitioned agency arrangements back in Asia and in Australia to be entirely in-house," Penn said. "We've hired three people, including me, and we have a fourth person who works for me, based out of Toronto."

The company has also been investing in the production of high-quality factual content, including its popular Love Nature channel. "We've done some pretty exciting deals," Penn said. "We have a really good and growing partnership with Fetch, and we've opened up Love Nature in the last few months as well for premium sponsorship and advertising." Despite the challenges posed by the disruption in the market, Blue Ant is optimistic about its prospects in Asia. "I think our size of organization – not too big or not too small – we're almost right-sized to move with the market," Staudt said. "We're just getting on with expanding the distribution for our premium natural history channel, Love Nature, which has a lot further to go."

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