FOX International Channels Asia Confirms The Walking Dead Season 5
November 1, 2013
FOX International Channels (FIC) has picked up the 5th season of the hugely popular television series The Walking Dead, for its territories across Asia Pacific. This follows AMC’s recent announcement that they have renewed the zombie apocalypse drama series for a further season in the US and shows FIC’s commitment to delivering the best, most sought after content to audiences across Asia.
The enormous success of The Walking Dead Season 4’s recent premiere has firmly positioned the show as must-see content for viewers in Asia. The show’s opening episode cumulatively reached 83% more viewers than Season 3’s premiere across six countries – Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, Korea and Australia. The first episode of Season 4 made FOX Movies Premium the top Western Movies Channel in both Singapore and Malaysia while FOX enjoyed similar success in the Philippines as the #1 Western General Entertainment Channel and FX was the top subscription channel in Australia. In Taiwan, The Walking Dead became the highest-rated western television series since 2005, making STAR Movies the #2 pay-TV channel and in Korea, FOX became the #3 cable channel overall.
In the US, the return of the 4th season smashed all of its previous records, with the first episode boasting an audience of 16.1 million, 10.4 million of which were in the coveted adults aged 18-49 bracket, a series high and an all new record for cable television.
The regional success of The Walking Dead highlights how Asia’s leading pay-TV network brings its viewers exceptional programming, as well as showcasing the creative marketing efforts that FIC undertakes to create that success. To launch the show this season in Japan, FIC leveraged its cross-promotion ability with FOX Sports Japan and staged a zombie attack at a baseball game, as well as executed an incredible Halloween stunt where over a thousand zombies stormed the Tokyo Tower which garnered international headlines. Also cross-promoting with its sports network across Southeast Asia, the set of the popular news show FOX Sports Central was turned into a post-zombie apocalypse zone. Taiwan experienced a similar attack from ‘walkers’ who hijacked a bus and drove around famous tourist locations, promoting The Walking Dead Season 4 along the way.
Joon Lee, Executive Vice President of Content and Communications, Asia Pacific and the Middle East at FOX International Channels said, “We are very happy that we will be able to welcome the fifth season of The Walking Dead back to FIC. It has grown from a television series into a global pop culture phenomenon and it is very exciting for us to have been a part of that growth in introducing the zombie fever to Asia.”
The Walking Dead Season 5 will return in 2014 on FIC’s channel platforms across Asia Pacific, with Scott Gimple as the series’ showrunner and Robert Kirkman, creator of the original comic on which it is based, Gale Anne Hurd, David Alpert, Greg Nicotero and Tom Luse as executive producers.