ATF 2023: INTERVIEW WITH JUSTIN DEIMEN, 108 MEDIA

The ATF - Asia Television Forum ( Asia TV Forum & Market (ATF) ) took place from 5 to 8 December, with numerous executives from the Media & Entertainment industry in attendance. Justin Deimen , President of 108 Media , was interviewed by LICENSING MAGAZINE as one of the speakers and co-organisers of ATF 2023.

Would you give us some details on how you are collaborating with ATF this year? For example, you were involved in the first edition of ATF x TTB Animation Lab & Pitch...

I wear two hats in general. One in pursuit of creating commercial value for our partners and shareholders via 108 Media and the other in aligning infrastructure for the greater industry via my non-profit role in the Southeast Asia-Pacific Audiovisual Archive Association . I'm lucky to have found partners and colleagues who support me in both endeavours. 108 Media is sponsoring a development-centric prize at the ATF IP Accelerator Project Market with the focus on international-level standards in putting great projects together, and as the the Executive Director of SAAVA, our team there is co-organising the Animation Lab with ATF and Ties That Bind to bring a focus on the adult animation industries in Europe and Asia and how co-productions can be achieved. This is a spin-off of the TTB feature film lab that SAAVA organised for years with ATF/TTB and we're excited to see the evolution. SAAVA also brought a much lauded partnership with the NFDC Film Bazaar with the AIPA market this year that created a pipeline towards South Asian and Asia Pacific co-production modes.

What are 108 Media's latest projects?

We're currently working on and via our subsidiaries on 4 major international projects that are in active stage of production - namely the scripted series Inspector Singh investigates and the feature film Mango Bride, and with our animation arm -? Robot Playground Media -? the animated feature, The Violinist and the animated series Banquet of hungry ghosts. They were developed in-house with the 108 development executives working together with the creators and co-producers of the projects.

What is the main licensing strategy for your IPs?

We have the primary aim of putting the production financing together of our IPs on our own but via co-productions across international territories and gap financing through our own funding infrastructure. We finance the development thoroughly as an investment by the company. Our licensing arm DCD Media in the UK together with the wider commercial team in 108 Media led by the founder Abhi Rastogi put together our global sales strategies and in each step, we focus on the buying data and the financing structure of the partners and potential stakeholders in the project. It's a balancing act led by the 108 sales and finance team.