Lifestyle specialist Scripps Networks Interactive, now with a bouquet of four channels in Asia, continues to build out its most widely distributed offering, Asian Food Channel (AFC), in its core Southeast Asian stronghold.

This week, AFC extended coverage in Vietnam – a key ad market – after inking a deal with one of the country’s largest cable operators, SCTV, while also announcing two new regional productions, greenlit without securing up-front commitments from advertisers for the first time.

In the past, Scripps has made sure key sponsors are on board before commissioning long-form content in Asia.

The new commissions, based on formats from Scripps library, signal a growing maturity for AFC, which is more reliant on third-party programming than the broadcaster’s other three Asian channels – Food Network, HGTV and Travel Channel.

These are more plugged into Scripps’ large library in its home market in the US, where it produces around 2,500 hours each year as one of the country’s largest pay-TV programmers.

Output is more modest in Asia, where the broadcaster makes about 50 hours of original shows, mostly underwritten by brand commitments so far. The plan is to do more, leveraging the library for both formats that could resonate with audiences in Asia, as well as ready-made shows.

“We’re not commanding huge affiliate fees in the marketplace – you’ve got to depend on this library that we have.” explains Derek Chang, Scripps’ MD for Asia-Pacific.

“It’s a huge asset,” Chang adds. “The fact that it works well, and dovetails with the business plan is good. Part of our ambition is to increase the amount of local programming that we do, because that’s also an important component of this strategy.”

Success could pave the way for more to follow but the new shows, set to make their debut in August and September respectively, still need to pay their way by earning enough sponsorship and advertising revenue, while scoring well with audiences and affiliates.

More original content for AFC will also bolster the channel’s pool of digital rights too.

“We’d like to do more,” Chang says. “Like any other business, we will see how it plays out and fine-tune it as we move.”

Visibility in Vietnam

At the same time, tying up with SCTV in Vietnam – adding to existing carriage with K+ – opens up a promising new ad market for AFC, which will now be available in more than 2 million Vietnamese homes.

“Asian Food Channel has gone over well in Vietnam,” Chang says. “We see that as an opportunity.”

At the same time, Chang has also been extending distribution for Scripps’ other channel brands, notably including most recent entrant HGTV, now with Fetch in Australia and on both SkyCable and Cignal in the Philippines after making its regional debut on StarHub in Singapore in December last year.

The company hopes to announce at least one more distribution deal for HGTV with a major platform in Southeast Asia before the year is out.

Scripps has also landed Food Network on Indovision in Indonesia and Now TV in Hong Kong earlier this year, with carriage on MOD in Taiwan to follow later in the year.

Having launched HGTV in the region, Chang now wants to devote more attention to one of its siblings, Travel Channel, which has been traditionally programmed out of London and has fallen short of its potential in Asia.

“We haven’t had enough time and enough focus to sort that out,” Chang remarks. “That is one of our objectives over the next 18 months, to start to figure out what is going to make Travel Channel work well in the region.”

By and large, Scripps’ expansion plans, including entry into new markets and building closer ties with key distribution partners, remain focused on Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Taiwan for now.

Larger markets could provide a revenue anchor for Scripps in APAC but further expansion – potentially beyond pay-TV in places such as China and Japan – are off the cards until next year.

bigger brands

Scripps is playing the long game in Asia, Chang explains, steering program sales – which the broadcaster brought back in-house last year – to primarily build up demand for the channels.

“That’s what’s going to pay off long-term,” he says. “In a lot of cases, we may sacrifice in the short term and maybe not sell as much through program sales, because we are trying to drive the business on the channel side. Ultimately, the pay-off will be down the road.”

At the same time, there’s more to be done in Southeast Asia, Chang explains, raising awareness of Scripps’ core genres – especially home and travel – through program sales and events, while continuing to build out distribution across its portfolio.

“I think we have leeway,” Chang explains. “Everyone would like to be in these markets yesterday, but everyone would like to be in these markets in a smart fashion.”

Entry into India for example, Asia’s largest pay-TV growth market, hinges on how much localization would be required to Scripps existing content to gain traction with local audiences – something that is being worked on.

Within Southeast Asia, Chang is also watching market developments in Thailand, another large potential ad market, to evaluate what the right business model might be.

In other large markets such as Indonesia, where Scripps has distribution for AFC as well as Food Network, the focus is on cultivating relationships rather than accelerating rollout in a rush to build reach.

It's an approach that typifies Scripps' broader ambition for APAC as a whole.

“Indonesia can be a difficult market,” Chang notes. “You can end up spending a lot of time and energy and not have a lot to show for it. We want to be on platforms that will be there for the long haul, and build our business with them.”