Malaysian Deals worth USD 70 Million announced at MIPCOM 2011

The official contingent of Malaysia to the world’s largest content market – MIPCOM, has doubled since last year from 30 creative content companies to 75 this year. His Excellency Dato’ Sri Kamaruddin Siaraf, Secretary General of the Malaysian Ministry of Information, Communications and Culture is leading the Malaysian delegation to MIPCOM this year, held from October 3rd to 6th 2011. The National Film Development Corporation Malaysia (FINAS) has joined forces with the Malaysian Communications & Multimedia Commission (SKMM) and Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC), in association with the Malaysian External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE) to reshape and enhance the local film and digital content industry by exposing multiple content properties to the global marketplace. 

Welcome speech by Excellency Dato’ Sri Kamaruddin Siaraf, Secretary General of the Malaysian Ministry of Information, Communications and Culture 

During MIPCOM, 16 deals worth more than USD 70 million was announced during the Creative Malaysia Cocktail Reception, held in the InterContinental Carlton Hotel in Cannes on Tuesday, October 4th, 2011 at 6 - 8pm, hosted by His Excellency Dato’ Sri Kamaruddin Siaraf. Malaysian companies – Animasia Studio, Backbone Entertainment, Cartoon4Kids, Double Vision, Ed-Online Technologies, Escalade, Funcel, InfiniteMotion, Lemon Sky Animation, Payang Group, Sirius Pictures, Tulus Fikir, Vision Animation, Vision New Media, etc are set to reveal deals with their foreign partners from United States, Singapore, South Africa, Australia, NZ, UK, Germany, France, Spain, China, Korea, India, and Lebanon during MIPCOM, related to international co-productions, distributions and global product launches. 

His Excellency Dato’ Sri Kamaruddin Siaraf said, “I am proud that Malaysia has achieved a major break-through this year in MIPCOM, managing to double the growth of Malaysian sellers and available IPs. Making an announcement of 16 major deals worth more than USD 70 million in the world’s most prestigious market - MIPCOM is truly a testament of the healthy growth of the Malaysian entertainment and media industry.”

As the global consumer spending is estimated to be worth USD 1.7 trillion (Price Waterhouse Coopers), the Malaysian Government is aggressively enhancing its plans and strategies to be able to target and capture a significant share of the anticipated expansion value of estimated USD 470 billion in Asia-Pacific alone. Under the “MY Creative Content” parallel to the ETP initiative, Malaysia targets to achieve a Gross National Income (GNI) of USD 1 billion by 2020, creation of 10,300 jobs, and secure an export of 45% of its GNI targets.

Malaysian Pavilion at MIPCOM 2011

Today, Malaysia has developed its industry into a very strong positioning where its local content demand is now bringing significant revenue to many local animation and film producers, as well as becoming “exportable quality” contents worldwide, e.g. The Malay Chronicles: Bloodlines, Mantera, SeeFood, Geng: The Adventure Begins, Saladin: An Animated Series, Bola Kampung, Bala Bowl, Supa Strikas, Boo & Me, Mustang Mama, Upin & Ipin, just to name a few. Malaysia is now known as a very attractive and stable economy for content development, as there’s an abundance of English-speaking creative multi-racial talent pool, aggressive government support, state-of-the-art studio infrastructures, as well as a relatively affordable venue for world-class studio operations. 

Zulkifli Wahab, Deputy Director General of FINAS is also reiterated that the key strengths of the Malaysian film and animation studios would be its richness of its culture and heritage, as well as its competitive incentives, state-of-the-art production facilities, low operating costs and its political stability. All these can provide the affluent material resources for developing the animation and TV/film industry. Additionally, with the highly talented workforce, strategic geographical location and economic stability, it allows the country to provide a unique position as being a multi-lingual, multi-cultural and rapidly growing market. 

The Malaysian Government is going all out to assist the export of Malaysian film and multimedia content at one of the world’s biggest content market – MIPCOM. The Malaysian Government has established a Malaysian pavilion branded under a joint trade name called “Malaysian Creativity for the World”, where more than 70 companies comprising of TV & Film, broadcasters, animation and documentary productions studios will participate. 

The Global Creative & Media Agency of Malaysia (GCMA) has been appointed by the Malaysian Government to facilitate the development and promotion of the Malaysian Pavilion. GCMA will also help the Malaysian government to accelerate the growth of Malaysian media and entertainment industry, in the hopes of bringing all the industry blocks in a unified effort. 

Malaysian Cocktail Party

A record-breaking more than 70 Malaysian Companies is represented in MIPCOM 2011 namely broadcasters such as Astro Entertainment, LiTV Asia, Media Prima, MEASAT Broadcast Network Systems, MEASAT Satellite Systems, Radio Television Malaysia (RTM), and TV/film production companies like Animasia Studio, Asa’ad Entertainment Network, Astro Overseas, Backbone Entertainment, Avittele, Cartoon4Kids, Cemporium, Dayang Digital, Ed-Online Technologies, Eurofine, Fine International Network, Funcel, Gama Taktik, Giggle Garage, Homegrown Productions, Infinite Motion, Inspidea, Lemon Sky Animation, Mexcomm, Peppermint Production, Primeworks Studios, Roar Studio, Screen Works International, Sirius Pictures, Sixty2Pictures, Spacetoon Media Hub, Third Rock Creation, Total Sports Asia, Tulus Fikir, Vision Animation, Worldwide Rights Corporation, Xadira Games, etc. 

The Malaysian buyers and distributors consists of Adept Media, Ambang Entertainment, Electronic Media Airtime Services, I-Intellect Avenue, Insular Challenge, Juita Viden, Media Utama, Paksi Nova, Payang Group, PC-Soft, POD Worldwide, Progressive Dynamic, Solimac, Root Works, Saujana Media, The Global Media Centre for Development, and Vision Plus Entertainment. 

Amongst the exciting and new titles to be featured in Cannes this year will include: The Challenger, The Malay Chronicles: Bloodlines, Mantera, KL Gangster, The Kitchen Musical, The Ancient Pushovers, Temptation of Love, Seamasters, Imam Muda, etc. Also animated titles include SeeFood, Kung Fu Chicken, Balla Bowl (Season 2), Saladin: An Animated Series (Season 2), BoBoiBoy, Boo & Me (Season 2), Eori, Cingkus Blues, Buzzy Bee & Friends, War of the World: Goliath, Buzzy Bee & Friends, etc. 

Next, FINAS will be organizing a Malaysian delegation to TIFFCOM (Tokyo, Japan) on 24-26 October, AFM (Santa Monica, CA, USA) on 2-7 November and Asia Television Forum (Singapore) on 7-10 December. 

For more details on the deal- click here