Beverley McGarvey, president of Network 10 and head of streaming at Paramount Australia and New Zealand, opened the Asian Academy Creative Awards National Winners Conference in Singapore on Dec. 3 with a rallying call for the region’s content industry, praising the diversity and youthful energy of Asia-Pacific programming while emphasizing the critical importance of strategic deal-making in today’s fragmented media landscape.
Speaking at the two-day conference ahead of the Grand Awards Gala on Dec. 4, McGarvey, who also serves as chair of the Asian Academy Creative Awards, reflected on her experience judging one of the 40 categories among the record 340 judges this year, marking a 30% increase from 2024.
“The diversity has been great across the board this year,” McGarvey said. “Every genre has been covered in terms of what’s been nominated, and every market has been covered.”
Coming from a background in English-language content across Australian, U.K., Canadian and American markets, McGarvey said she was particularly struck by the age demographics of Asia-Pacific programming. “There were lots of shows that really featured lots of young people and featured lots of stories that I think would really resonate with younger audiences,” she said. “In lots of platforms in the English-language speaking markets, things are aging up quite a bit. And that’s just not true in all the content that I’ve seen here.”
The conference precedes the gala ceremony featuring 331 national winners from 16 countries competing for the Golden Goddess trophies, with high-profile contenders including Jacob Elordi for Prime Video’s “The Narrow Road to the Deep North” and Cate Blanchett for Apple TV’s “Disclaimer.”
McGarvey devoted significant attention to the evolving economics of content production, arguing that strategic deal-making has become as crucial as creative execution in the current marketplace. “A great idea doesn’t make a great show — great execution makes a great show,” she said. “To get to that point of great execution, it kind of starts with the deal.”
The exec highlighted the increasing complexity of rights management in an era of multiple platforms and emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence. “Twenty years ago, 15 years ago, we started to buy less broad rights, and we didn’t use them for about five or six years,” McGarvey recalled. “Now you move forward to today, and you have to buy so many different rights. You have to construct a deal that allows you to do so many different things.”
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McGarvey cited examples from Paramount’s recent Australian productions that demonstrate the company’s flexible approach to windowing and platform strategy. “NCIS: Sydney” airs on Paramount Plus in Australia and other markets, on CBS in the U.S., and on Network 10 in Australia as a second window after Paramount Plus. Conversely, the Australian version of “Ghosts” launched on Paramount Plus before airing weekly on Network 10, allowing the free-to-air broadcasts to promote the streaming service.
“Every show is different, every genre is different, every market is different,” McGarvey said. “Although you can create guardrails, we’ve got to be clever and construct things that service that product the best way possible.”
Beyond content partnerships, McGarvey highlighted the growing importance of technology collaborations. Network 10 recently partnered with LG to carry the network’s signal on the electronics manufacturer’s electronic program guides as a live stream. The deal addresses the reality that less than half of Australian households plug in a terrestrial aerial, ensuring discoverability for free-to-air content.
McGarvey also pointed to Network 10’s reimagined “Big Brother” as an example of multi-platform strategy targeting younger audiences. The reality format now includes a live TikTok stream alongside traditional broadcasts, with episodes also available on YouTube. “If you’re whatever age you are and you haven’t watched free-to-air possibly since you were born, you might watch the TikTok stream, and then it brings them back into our ecosystem,” she said.
Despite the complexity of modern content distribution, McGarvey returned to a fundamental principle. “A great show will always find an audience,” she said. “A great show, well executed, will always find an audience. Maybe not tomorrow, but it will eventually work if it’s got great stories and great characters.”
The National Winners Conference continues Dec. 4, featuring panels on generative AI and copyright, platform strategy and deal-making. The Grand Awards Gala takes place at Capitol Theatre on the evening of Dec. 4.
The 2025 Asian Academy Creative Awards marks the seventh edition of the ceremony.
From Variety US