Campaign Profile

Patrick Rivet, CEO of CANAL+ subsidiary THEMA, outlines how the content and channel distributor has led the charge in driving and exploiting demand for Asian programming in Europe and North America, and offers a glimpse of the company’s new titles for Cannes.

Can you outline your strategy for bringing Asian content to the world?

Over the years THEMA has acquired recognition for bringing non-Western content to Europe and America. We started with African content, then Turkish, then Korean. We use our office presence in key territories – such as the US, Canada, Mexico, Spain and France – to identify local viewing habits and select titles for our clients. Asian content has a wide array of themes, from horror to romance, and it is important to curate.

From a commercial point of view, we have a hybrid distribution model between content licensing and advertising, depending on the needs of our client. We also collaborate with local media outlets to enhance visibility: content needs to be known about.