In preparation for the Asia TV Forum (ATF) in Singapore this December, and following VideoAge‘s September 19, 2022 Water Cooler feature on South Korea’s international TV successes, VideoAge contacted Sonia Fleck (pictured above), the CEO of Singapore-based Bomanbridge TV, a company she founded in 2007 with the goal of promoting Asian film and TV content around the world, to expand on the wide-ranging Asian TV content currently available. Fleck, of French-American background, relocated to Singapore in 2009 from Monte Carlo.
Water Cooler: To what do you attribute the success of Asian TV content in Europe, LATAM, and the U.S.?
Sonia Fleck: Everyone is aware that South Korean content has had a huge impact on the global industry. I’ll try and take a slightly different and less visited explanation on this.
In 2012, Rolling Stone published an article on Korean pop (K-pop) bands that would break through in the U.S. Korean influence was clearly on the radar. South Korea has spent a lot of money in promotion to export South Korean culture abroad, and it certainly helped. We call this the “Hallyu” trend, which translates as the “Korean Wave.”
Television drama series, as well as films coming from South Korea, have risen to prominence and broken the cultural barrier overseas due to a combination of factors, but in short, it’s about change. Changing depictions of masculinity have been key, challenging norms on fashion (see English singer Harry Styles), acceptable and perhaps softer expressions of love and lust, as well as less forced and slightly more basic yet wittier humor. Additionally, due to the Korean promotional machine — fan bases were expertly built, and if there is anything we know about Korean drama and K-pop — it’s that they have a coveted following. A polished and cultivated presentation of a unified cultural storytelling will have an impact — and we see this clearly from South Korea. Now, other territories such as Thailand, China, Taiwan, and the Philippines are also on the rise and on the move, so stay tuned.
WC: How do other Asian TV producers compete with the success of South Korean TV content?
SF: I don’t know if I want to look at the success of South Korean content as simply creating a higher entry barrier for other Asian IP. One could argue that the success of South Korean content has actually put lesser-known Asian producers from other nations in a new light on the international stage. It shows that there are diamonds all over the Asian region.
Furthermore, I think the success of South Korean content, and before that Japanese, has had far-reaching ramifications in opening the exchange with the Western world on more equal terms. The world of popular entertainment has seen a high degree of globalization with Hollywood. However, Hollywood has proved to be a dystopia to the peoples of Asia in certain ways; it was often heavily dominated by non-Asians, and underpinned by what is sometimes perceived here as the contemporary Western ethos, (i.e., individualism, commercialism, and sensationalism). Scenes containing heavy unadulterated sex and violence, which may create discomfort or offend the sensitivities of the Asian general public, are almost an integral part of many a commercially successful Western film. Other nations in Asia are now reaping the benefits of bringing forward their own unique way of cultural storytelling off the back of South Korea’s “blowing the Western doors wide open.” Asia and Asians is/are not uniformly the same. This region is really a treasure of unique gemstones and I for one am so happy to see the interest levels globally.
In other Bomanbridge Media news, the company, representing Magnify Media formats in Asia, has sold the local adaption rights for cooking competition Fridge Wars, to Mongolian television broadcaster NTV.
The format, which debuted on Canada’s CBC in 2020, pits two celebrity chefs against one another with a challenge to create extraordinary meals using only the ingredients taken from the ordinary fridges of typical families. The Mongolian adaptation (14×45’) premiered on September 25 and will feature 28 families.
Leave A Comment