It was revealed that TVB is planning to produce more projects in Malaysia.
Chen Shuhong, General Manager of Television Broadcasts (International) Limited (TVBI) said that TVB has always paid attention to the Malaysian market and has increased its efforts to explore the Malaysian entertainment market in recent years.
“Malaysia is very similar to Hong Kong. Most of the 7 million Chinese people in Malaysia know Cantonese and Mandarin. Malaysian audiences like Hong Kong artists and will choose to watch TVB dramas. In addition, the production cost in Malaysia is relatively low. TVB is very optimistic about the prospects of Malaysia. Developing the Malaysian market has always been an important business strategy for us,” he said.
In view of the fact that TVB’s earlier dramas filmed in Malaysia, such as “Outbound Love” and “Born Rich”, have all been popular and influential locally, Chen expressed his hope to use the “customised drama” model to add cooperation between Malaysia and Hong Kong.
“Our Youku and Tencent collaboration “The Queen of News” has been a hot topic… The first condition to attract audiences is that it is ‘relatable to others’. For example, the content must involve Malaysian themes, Malaysian artists, and Malaysian filming, so that Malaysian audiences will resonate. I hope that this cooperation model can make Malaysian stories go overseas and promote them all over the world.”
As to whether accents will be a big obstacle, Chen explained: “We have a department that specialises in training artistes, but it also depends on whether the artistes have language talent or whether they work hard to learn. In fact, the Cantonese of Malaysian artistes is acceptable to Hong Kong audiences. I will not force Malaysian artistes to speak fluent Cantonese. It doesn’t matter what language, as long as the audience is comfortable watching it.”
In addition, Chen has not ignored the Malay market and is currently actively planning for it.
“We have done a survey and found that Malay audiences like to watch TVB dramas, but they cannot understand or have to read English subtitles, so we are also working on Malay subtitles and cooperating with the marketing department to shoot content for the Malay market.”
(Photo Source: TVB Anywhere)