A united view from the East

When ImaginAsian TV launches today on Comcast cable’s TV 101 in Southern California, the Asian American market will have the first ethnic programming that seeks to serve all Asian cultures and age groups as well as the general English-speaking market.

Premiering as a part-time digital channel on the already existing TV 101, ImaginAsian TV will be available to 340,000 of the 500,000 Comcast households in Southern California from 6 p.m. to midnight on weekdays and from 10 a.m. to midnight on weekends. If ImaginAsian TV grabs enough viewers, Comcast may launch it as its own full-time channel, said David Su, director of product marketing.

ImaginAsian TV also airs on Comcast in San Francisco and in Denver, Las Vegas, Reno and Ventura County via broadcast.

“We are trying to bridge the different Asian communities and groups, even from generation to generation, as well as the general market, which is increasingly fascinated with Asian culture,” said ImaginAsian Entertainment Chief Executive Michael Hong. “There’s a lot of disconnect for Asian Americans between the generations as well as with the general market. But it’s also very important that we don’t try to say there is an Asian person per se. We are not trying to blend all of the Asian groups.”

Unlike the Spanish television market, which can easily serve many cultures that speak the same language, the underserved Asian American market has the challenge of trying to appeal to a very diverse core audience. In addition, Hong wants to attract English-speaking non-Asians who have turned movies such as “Hero,” “House of Flying Daggers” and “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” into bona fide hits and are increasingly fascinated with Japanese anime and Bollywood musicals.

ImaginAsian TV’s programming will be grouped by genre and will be subtitled in English.

“We are trying to provide a platform in the mainstream context for all of these groups,” Hong said. “We are selecting the type of programming that will appeal to the core audience, that same audience that will cross over and cross-pollinate with all of the different segments of the general population.”

ImaginAsian TV will also air original English-language programming produced in the U.S. First on its slate is “Uncle Morty’s Dub Shack,” a comedy targeting second-generation Asian Americans, based on a group of Asian American men who work at a dubbing facility for B-grade movies.

“A lot of other networks and channels out there are trying to create an Asian version of an established American format,” Hong said. “My opinion is that there’s rich source material, and it has to really be organic to our culture. There’s no reason we should imitate.”