Piaras Kelly PR - Public Relations in Ireland

Tiger Beer’s sponsorship of a Asian film series on TG4 began this week with Bruce Lee’s classic ‘Enter the Dragon’. I was quite excited when I first heard about the sponsorship, but that quickly dissipated when I read about the films that would be showcased.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of films like ‘Enter the Dragon’ and thought that TG4 showed how they can carve out a niche on Irish TV when they broadcast the Bruce Lee commemoration on the anniversary of his death.

However, I don’t understand why they didn’t follow a formula similar to the Tiger Asian film festival run in UGC last year. There are numerous examples of film retailers getting loyal customers by ordering Manga or other hard to get titles, and there’s no reason in my mind why TG4 couldn’t pursue a similar strategy by broadcasting modern cult Asian films.

The Culture supplement in today’s Sunday Times points out that the Chinese film industry is the fastest growing outside of Hollywood and films like Kung Fu Hustle are giving Tinseltown blockbusters a run for their money. Throw in the dedicated followers of Asian cinema (just do a search for threads on films like Ichi the Killer on Boards.ie’s film forum) and you’ve got a winning formula.

TG4 already appeal to a lot of film fans because they are the only station to put cult films into their schedule on a regular basis. They could win a lot of fans (and more importantly, a lot of regular viewers) if they started to show films like The Ring, Ichi the Killer or Manga movies like the Street Fighter series.