Talking Heads with Ricky Ow

Sheetal Patel - Televisionpoint.com | Mumbai
At 42, the Singapore-based Ricky Ow, general manager, SPE Networks – Asia, is still in love with his job. He oversees two channels, AXN and Animax, across 18 countries in Asia. Both channels are owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment.

With a graduate degree in humanities from the National University of Singapore and more than 12 years of broadcasting experience across virtually every aspect of the TV business – sales, marketing, distribution, business development and even programming, across Mediacorp, ABN, CNBC and now AXN and Animax – Ow spells out the biggest excitements and challenges in his job.

Why do you love your job?
It keeps me challenged – constantly young and happy.

Heading up a large team across Asia must be challenging?
People remain the biggest challenge. It is indeed challenging to find a group of people to share the same vision and work with us long enough. My challenge is how to build an A team with young talent. That's a big challenge – turnover is high with young people. You do find gems over a process of time, the ones who will form the core team to take the business to another level. It is my job to create the sense of challenge and excitement.

What's the biggest challenge in your job?
How do we continue to differentiate ourselves? And then to differentiate ourselves further? It's an ongoing challenge.

Tell us about second edition of Amazing Race Asia, which kicked off recently?
AXN is extremely proud of this production which has brought us record ratings across Asia in its inaugural season, and it being the first AXN production to be syndicated is really icing on the cake. Thanks to the great team at Disney-ABC International Television, having the programme on these terrestrial channels mean that more people can now catch this amazing show.

We have been airing the US version for a number of years. Fans were asking how they could participate. Obviously to participate in the American version you need a Green card. So we decided to do an Asian version of the show and are the first broadcaster to do the show after CBS.

What are the other new concepts that AXN has in mind this year?
We are doing a local version of the boxing-based reality show The Contender done out of Singapore. India does not have a representative in this show and it is not as big here as it is in some of the other Asian countries. In Asia boxing is seen as a form of exercise like Yoga.

Another show we are looking at is called Ultimate Xtreme, where friends recommend that a person take part in a show without his/her knowledge. We will be also launching a major show called Damages, it was done by SPTI for the US and is a legal thriller set in the world of New York City high-stakes litigation.

With the development of new media, surely your challenges go beyond television?
Yes, technology does offer opportunities but poses a lot of challenges. New media represent more opportunities and money for me, but people are less sure about what the boundaries are. The rules have changed and the new business model is not as attractive as the traditional one that delivered revenue. New media are in investment mode, where we are still learning the business. We do not know for sure how the consumer will react and what the pitfalls are. You have to be an adventurer, push the envelope. People need to feel it is worthwhile.

Both Animax and AXN launched mobile offerings recently. How has been the response for it?
Right now the money in this sector is small, but with our strategy the future is bright for the digital space. AXN offers customised short form versions of shows like The Amazing Race, which is not found on the channel. Animax has long form programming, whereby viewers can catch up on episodes that you have missed on the mobile.

What we have learnt so far is that users will use our mobile content more if it is reasonably priced. This means that the content cost and airtime cost package have to be affordable. There is no point in having low priced content if the airtime cost to download the content is high. We have to be smarter in terms of how these two costs are packaged.

Where does India stands as far as AXN's priority is concerned?
There are four big markets for AXN in Asia. India is a very important market for us and I would place it below China and Korea, but above Japan. About 20-25 per cent of our revenues come from here and the country offers room for a lot of growth as it is not a developed market.

The I&B Ministry has acted against AXN's adult content. Has the channel modified the late night content after the government action's earlier this year?
We had a slot Hot N Wild which we had taken out long before the ban, though we still had shows on that reflecting the edginess of that time block. We air shows that offer the brand promise of action and adventure, and we are not positioning ourselves as being a sexy channel.