THE mood at the 8th Asia Media Festival (AMF) was an upbeat and positive one – and for good reason.

The Asia Pacific entertainment and media industries are forecast to be among the fastest growing in the world, with a compound annual growth rate of 8.8 per cent. Figures from the Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia show subscriptions for TV services in Asia Pacific rising by 35 million in 2009, to 326 million homes.

Even before AMF 2009, hosted by the Media Development Authority (MDA) from 2-4 December at Suntec International Convention and Exhibition Centre, Singapore’s television co-productions with industry players had grown to more than $10 million in 2009, noted Mr Lui Tuck Yew, Singapore’s Acting Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts, in his opening address at the Asia Television Forum.

To ensure that the future remains as bright, MDA is encouraging co-productions and the development of cutting-edge technologies. Four MOUs were signed on the first day alone. See International Collaborations Off to a Flying Start.

The Singapore pavilion at AMF 2009 was a showcase for stereoscopic 3D, in both production and post-production of 3D content. Visitors could watch stereoscopic 3D clips, and see themselves reach out of the screen with a 3D rig set up by Widescreen Media, which provided the stereoscopic 3D equipment and shooting expertise in the production of Amphibious 3D, Southeast Asia’s first full-length stereoscopic 3D feature.

Another Singapore company working on this new technology is ST Electronics (Training and Simulation Systems), which showed its chops on Jane and the Dragon. Co-produced with Canada’s Nelvana, the 3D animated series will be broadcast in the US and Germany.

“The 3D monitor is available off the shelf, but we need content,” noted Mr Aloysius Phua, Director, Marketing, ST Electronics. “3D television is still in its infancy. Within the next decade, once the content becomes sufficient, it will rise.” And Singapore companies, which are now honing their expertise in games and training, will be there to ride that wave.

The regional media and film industry also received a huge boost with the announcement that MDA and the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) were collaborating to provide businesses here with an impartial avenue to settle film and media disputes.

The Asia Pacific WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Centre will officially open in Singapore in January 2010. “MDA’s charter is to work with the media industry and build the ecosystem,” said Mr Kenneth Tan, Chief Operating Officer, MDA. “This scheme is timely because we are positioning and promoting Singapore as a centre of excellence for IP protection in general.”

Meanwhile, AMF 2009’s anchor event – the Asia Television Forum (ATF), which rounded up its 10th edition – showed itself to be the leading content market in Asia, with an 8 per cent overall increase in participation over 2008. Out of 358 sellers, 139 were first-timers, and the number of buyers at the event went up by 5 per cent to 312, of which 62 were newcomers. ATF was a huge success this year, closing with US$88.7 million worth of deals transacted, a 20 percent increase over the value of deals transacted last year.

One new ATF participant was Global Agency, a company from Turkey which was selling a reality concept programme. Managing Director Izzet Ressam Pinto declared himself satisfied with the interest showed at the market.

In conjunction with ATF, the AMF 2009 Country Showcase was organised for industry and government representatives from Asia and Europe to share information with a view to facilitating international co-productions. See Creative Pairings Get the Push at AMF Country Showcase.

For the more competitive, Format Superpitch brought together TV professionals from the region to test their pitching skills. They presented their ideas live to a panel of judges comprising commissioning editors and executives from channels, networks and content creation companies in the region.

AMF was also a time for everyone to immerse themselves in the industry. If the breakfast meetings, working lunches and networking dinners were not enough, participants with time on their hands could also take in the offerings at the Asian Festival of First Films, where first time works by Asian filmmakers were screened.

No event is complete without a celebration, and the 14th Asian Television Awards on 3 December lauded programming, production and performance excellence in Asian television. Singapore’s public programming fared well at the industry’s most significant event, with The Little Nyonya bagging best drama series and Adrian Pang taking home the best actor award for Red Thread.

Highly commended were The Way We Live - In The Shadow Of The Volcano (cinematography), the President’s Command Performance (one-off entertainment special), BLOG TV.SG (talk show), and actors Chua Enlai and Qi Yuwu. For more details on the award winners, go to: http://www.asiantvawards.com/ata-2009-winner-list.asp

For more in-depth news on AMF 2009, read our daily Newsflash reports on 3 December and 7 December.