Television Across Asia: TV Industries, Programme Formats and Globalisation

235 Pages·2003·3.05 MB·English

by  Michael Keane

Television across Asia
This book explores the trade in television programme formats, which is a
crucially important ingredient in the globalization of culture, in Asia. It
examines how much traffic there is in programme formats, the principal
direction of the flow of such traffic, and the economic and cultural signific-
ance of this trade for the territories involved, and for the region as a
whole. It shows how new technology, deregulation, privatization and eco-
nomic recession have greatly intensified competition between broadcasters
in Asia, as in other parts of the world, and discusses how this in turn
has multiplied the incidence of television format remakes, with some
countries developing dedicated format companies, and others becoming
net importers and adapters of formats.
Albert Moran is Senior Lecturer at Griffith University. He has written
extensively on the Australian screen and on international aspects of film
and television. Recent books include Film Policy: International, National
and Regional Perspectives and Copycat TV: Globalization, Programme
Formats and Cultural Identity. His current research includes a reinterpre-
tation of the development of Australian television, a handbook on busi-
ness/legal aspects of formats and a study of the global flows of fiction
formats.
Michael Keane is Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the Creative Indus-
tries Research and Application Centre (CIRAC) at the Queensland
University of Technology, Australia. Current research interests include
television format trade in Asia and the internationalization of the creative
industries in East Asia. He is co-editor of Media in China: Consumption,
Content and Crisis(with Stephanie H. Donald and Yin Hong).
RoutledgeCurzon Media, Culture and Social Change in Asia
Series editor
Stephanie Hemelryk Donald, Queensland University of Technology
The aim of this series is to publish original, high-quality work by both new
and established scholars in the West and the East, on all aspects of media,
culture and social change in Asia.
1 Television across Asia
Television industries, programme formats and globalization
Edited by Albert Moran and Michael Keane
Television across Asia
Television industries, programme
formats and globalization
Edited by Albert Moran and
Michael Keane
First published 2004
by RoutledgeCurzon
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by RoutledgeCurzon
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2004.
RoutledgeCurzon is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
Compilation and editorial matter © 2004 Albert Moran and
MichaelKeane; individual chapters © 2004 the contributors
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN 0-203-18051-8Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-34433-2(Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0–415–30905–0(Print Edition)
Contents
List of tables vii
List of contributors viii
Acknowledgements xi
1 Television formats in the world/the world of television
formats 1
ALBERT MORAN
2 Asia: new growth areas 9
MICHAEL KEANE
3 Feeling glocal: Japan in the global television format
business 21
KOICHI IWABUCHI
4 A local mode of programme adaptation: South Korea
intheglobal television format business 36
DONG-HOO LEE
5 Cloning, adaptation, import and originality: Taiwan in
theglobal television format business 54
YU-LI LIU AND YI-HSIANG CHEN
6 Coping, cloning and copying: Hong Kong in the global
television format business 74
ANTHONY FUNG
7 A revolution in television and a great leap forward for
innovation? China in the global television format
business 88
MICHAEL KEANE
vi Contents
8 Let the contests begin! ‘Singapore slings’ into action:
Singaporein the global television format business 105
TANIA LIM
9 Copied from without and cloned from within: India in
theglobal television format business 122
AMOS OWEN THOMAS AND KEVAL J. KUMAR
10 Closing the creativity gap – renting intellectual capital
inthename of local content: Indonesia in the global
televisionformat business 138
PHILIP KITLEY
11 Reformatting the format: Philippines in the global
televisionformat business 157
JOSEFINA M.C. SANTOS
12 Distantly European? Australia in the global television
formatbusiness 169
ALBERT MORAN
13 An export/import industry: New Zealand in the global
television format business 185
GEOFF LEALAND
14 Joining the circle 197
ALBERT MORAN AND MICHAEL KEANE
Bibliography 205
Index 219
International television formats and programme titles index 221
Tables
4.1 Import of programmes by television networks 39
5.1 Programme origins of ten television channels in one week 61
5.2 Sources of television programme formats from ten channels 63
5.3 Examples of television programme formats 65
5.4 Local idol-dramas produced by terrestrial and cable
televisionchannels 70
6.1 Kinds of programme variations resulting from foreign
programmeadoption 77
6.2 Major quiz shows 83
8.1 Weekly television programming schedule of the four key
channelscovering a total of 90% of Singapore households 115
9.1 Estimated programme sources on central Indian prime
time, 2001 125
9.2 Adaptations of foreign programme formats – apparent,
acknowledged or alleged 126
10.1 Licensed format programmes screened in recent years on
Indonesian television 139
10.2 Percentages of local programmes and imported
programmes 142
10.3 Pay TV services in Indonesia 142
10.4 Indonesian programmes allegedly ‘inspired by’ or adapted
frominternational formats 144
Contributors
Yi-Hsiang Chen is Associate Professor in the Department of Public Com-
munications at Shih Hsin University in Taiwan. She has received grants
from Taiwan’s National Science Council for a research project in the
area of media diversity. Current research interests include diversity
studies in television programming, prime time television dramas and
language variety in Taiwan TV programmes.
Anthony Fung is Assistant Professor in the School of Journalism and
Communication at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. His PhD dis-
sertation at the University of Minnesota was on theories of political
economy of communication in Hong Kong. Research interests include
youth, music and popular culture, cultural studies and cultural identity,
gender identity and new media technologies. He is co-author (with
Koichi Iwabuchi and Michael Keane) of Out of Nowhere: Television
Formats and the East Asian Cultural Imagination (Hong Kong Univer-
sity Press).
Koichi Iwabuchi is Assistant Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at
the International Studies Division of the International Christian Uni-
versity, Tokyo. After working for NTV (Nippon Television Corpora-
tion) for 10 years, he undertook a doctorate at the University of
Western Sydney, Australia. He has published many articles on cultural
globalization and transnationalism both in English and Japanese. Main
English publications include Recentering Globalization: Popular Culture
and Japanese Transnationalism and Feeling Asian Modernities: Trans-
national Consumption of Japanese TV Dramas in East/Southeast Asia;
and Out of Nowhere: Television Formats and the East Asian Cultural
imagination(Hong Kong University Press).
Michael Keane is Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the Creative
Industries Research and Application Centre (CIRAC) at the Queens-
land University of Technology, Australia. Current research interests
include television format trade in Asia and creative industries inter-
nationalization in East Asia. He is co-editor of Media in China:
Contributors ix
Consumption, Content and Crisis (with Stephanie H. Donald and Yin
Hong), and co-author of Out of Nowhere: Television Formats and the
East Asian Cultural Imagination(Hong Kong University Press).
Philip Kitley is Associate Professor of Asian Studies at the University of
Southern Queensland, Australia. He has written extensively on televi-
sion and media in Indonesia and has published Television, Nation and
Culture in Indonesia (Ohio University Press) and edited Television,
Regulation and Civil Society in Asia (RoutledgeCurzon). Current
research is concerned with the idea of the public and popular sover-
eignty in Indonesia and is supported by an Australian Research Council
Discovery Grant.
Keval J. Kumar is Director of the Resource Centre for Media Education
and Research, and Reader in Communication and Journalism at the
University of Poona, India. He is the author of Mass Communication in
India, Media Education, Communication and Public Policy in India,
and co-author of Environmentalism and the Mass Media-The North-
South Divide. Dr Kumar has presented several papers on national and
transnational television in India.
Geoff Lealand is a Senior Lecturer in Screen and Media Studies at the
University of Waikato. His research and teaching interests include chil-
dren and media, television studies, journalism training, and big issues of
national identity and cultural production. Much of 2002 was spent
attempting to maintain some critical distance for teaching purposes, as
The Lord of the Rings’ fever swept through New Zealand.
Dong-Hoo Lee is Associate Professor of the Department of Mass Com-
munication at the University of Incheon, Korea. She obtained her PhD
degree at New York University. After moving back to Korea, she
briefly worked with the Seoul Broadcasting System. She has written
several articles on the hybrid nature of media culture in Korea. Her
research interests include media theory and local media culture.
Tania Lim is a PhD candidate at the Creative Industries Research and
Application Centre (CIRAC) at the Queensland University of Techno-
logy. Her current research interests include television format trade in
Asia, international co-productions, globalization and Asian television
industry development and the internationalization of the creative indus-
tries in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan. She has worked for 6 years
with the Singapore Broadcasting Authority covering areas such as inter-
national co-productions and industry development.
Yu-li Liu is Professor in Radio and Television at the National Chengchi
University in Taiwan. She has received grants from the US Fulbright
Foundation and Taiwan’s National Science Council. Research interests
include electronic media law and regulation, new communications