Taiwan’s biggest telecom, Chunghwa Telecom, put 10 fresh content bets on the table at its Content Slate and Partnership Showcase inside the Taiwan Creative Content Fest (TCCF), Variety reported on 6 November. The package covers scripted series, film, a youth cooking competition, a music tour and equity stakes in two production companies. Individual deal values were not disclosed. Culture minister Li Yuan attended with Chunghwa executives including chief business officer Lin Wen-chiyh and consumer business group president Hu Hsueh-hai.
Key facts
- Event: Chunghwa Telecom Content Slate and Partnership Showcase at TCCF; Chunghwa has sponsored TCCF for five consecutive years
- Scripted series: Gunshot (with PTS Taigi TV and S11 Partners); Yesterday’s Daughter, Tomorrow’s Mother (producer Phoebe Ma, director Hung Tzu-peng); Guides to the World Below (comic adaptation); C’est la Vie (urban food drama; Esther Liu executive producer)
- Unscripted / music: Next Z Chef (youth cooking competition); Shallow Levée Asian tour Speak in Silence (~50 shows in Taiwan and eight other Asian countries)
- Film: Demon of the East: Black Condo (horror, four-country Asian cinematic universe); Call of Lobster (2024 Chunghwa Telecom Award winner at TCCF pitching; selected for Culture Ministry Great Voyage Project flagship cohort)
- Equity: stakes via Chunghwa and Chunghwa Digital Cultural and Creative in DaMou Entertainment (The World Between Us II, Wave Makers) and Horiza Creations (community/crowdfunding-led)
The slate in full
Variety’s report lists four scripted series. Gunshot is a police crime drama made with PTS Taigi TV, the Taiwanese-language channel of public broadcaster PTS, and S11 Partners. Yesterday’s Daughter, Tomorrow’s Mother is framed as family fantasy from Ma and Hung. Guides to the World Below adapts a popular Taiwanese comic as fantasy adventure. C’est la Vie is an urban drama about food and women’s personal growth, with actress Esther Liu as executive producer. Chunghwa has also invested in Next Z Chef, billed as Taiwan’s first cooking competition show for young people.
On the film side, Demon of the East: Black Condo is a horror title tied to a cinematic universe designed to cross four Asian countries. Call of Lobster won the Chunghwa Telecom Award at TCCF’s 2024 pitching sessions and has since joined the Culture Ministry’s first international flagship cohort under the Great Voyage Project. In music, indie band Shallow Levée’s Speak in Silence Asian tour is lined up for about 50 shows in Taiwan and eight other Asian countries.
Beyond project finance, Chunghwa and Chunghwa Digital Cultural and Creative have taken equity in DaMou Entertainment and Horiza Creations. DaMou’s credits include The World Between Us II and Wave Makers; Horiza uses community engagement and crowdfunding to test audience demand. Chunghwa-backed films Arrested Memory and The Photo From 1977 together drew 12 nominations at the 63rd Golden Horse Awards. The company runs mobile and broadband networks plus MOD IPTV and Hami Video, which together have more than three million subscribers, Variety reported.
Lin described Chunghwa as more than a platform operator and said it would keep linking funding, creative talent and domestic and international partners. Li compared the company to a pyramid that is now investing at the top in film and television professionals. Dollar figures, ownership percentages and release dates for the new slate were not in the announcement.
Chunghwa’s pitch, as Variety summarised it, is to back Taiwanese original IP and connect local creators with partners abroad. That sits beside five years of TCCF sponsorship and a subscriber stack that already mixes mobile, broadband, MOD IPTV and Hami Video. For foreign sales agents, the practical question is which of the ten titles will travel with English-language materials and which are domestic-first. Gunshot’s PTS Taigi partnership points to a Taiwanese-language primary audience; Call of Lobster’s Great Voyage selection is the clearest internationalisation track named in the slate. Equity in DaMou and Horiza suggests Chunghwa also wants upside in producers that can refill the pipeline, not only one-off project cheques.
Our reading
For Taiwanese producers and foreign co-producers at TCCF, the read is a telecom using its subscriber stack (MOD / Hami) and festival sponsorship to underwrite original IP and take equity, not only licence finished shows. Call of Lobster’s path from a 2024 pitch prize into a ministry flagship cohort is the clearest signal that Chunghwa wants pipeline continuity. Without disclosed budgets or stake sizes, buyers should treat the list as a slate map and chase term sheets project by project.
Related: Weta FX’s TAICCA partnership in Taiwan; Romania named AFM Country of Focus; CJ CGV’s record Q3 on premium formats.