TV industry has to get out of the box

In the immense success of the Channel 3 TV series “Love Destiny” are certain revelations about the tightrope on which the Thai entertainment industry balances. The drama series has become a phenomenal hit not just because it showcases creativity in the screenplay and vast improvements in computer-generated graphic effects, but also because it retains many of the soap-opera cliches that appeal to a mass audience.
Every content creator in Thai show business will say the 
same thing if asked why Thai 
productions, for all their clear potential, rarely stray from this rusty old framework. They’ll explain that sponsorship depends on good ratings, good ratings depend on pulling in the biggest possible audience, and most viewers don’t like concepts that are “outside the box”. Thais, in general, have conservative tastes when it comes to entertainment. They prefer the familiar to the unusual, the comfortable to the unexpected.
It might sound like harsh condemnation of the tastes of the majority, but people in the industry are sticking to this rationale. “We can go to the sponsors with a grand plan for something that’s never been done before,” one soap director has said, “but if the viewers want explosions and houses on fire, who are we to deny them?” And thus conservatism dampens creativity. 
Creativity can of course be hugely profitable, as seen in the commercial success of “Love Destiny”. One example is the lead actress playing two characters of extreme opposites, a riveting performance. At the same time, though, there are many of the usual mainstays of television drama so beloved among Thai viewers. We have gossipy servants, plenty of grossly one-dimensional characters, and a hero and heroine who dislike each other to begin with but gradually, predictably fall in love.
So even the most successful Thai TV series can’t quite surrender the tried and true cliches deemed necessary to pleasing the market. And we can’t expect the studios to take the leap and try new concepts without a push from the government and a revolution in the mindset of sponsors and advertisers. To get Thai show business out of the box, we could start by copying the approaches of other nations. South Korea, for example, found a global market for its productions by easing up on censorship, which allowed for more creativity, and by implementing a clever financing policy that involves state subsidies.
Even so, South Korea stumbled at first. Investors wanted to cling to the usual success formula and shunned innovation. The government stepped in with generous seed money that was distributed according to merit, so that good-quality content began emerging even from studios with small budgets. Solid performance was 
financially rewarded regardless of viewer ratings.
It’s a chicken-and-egg situation when it comes to cultivating an audience, but let’s start with the egg. Studios need to stop 
thinking of what the masses want or expect and let their creativity flow. Innovation requires disregard for conventional rewards. Thai show business needs to change from the inside and be shored up from the outside. There need not be a timeframe for when it climbs out of the box, but common sense 
dictates that the sooner it happens, the better.