MTV Networks Asia and Philips Sound and Vision have collaborated to develop a new show, Out of the Box, that went on air on Sunday.
Instead of the usual musical or sports programmes, Out of the Box will feature two to four-minute vignettes on interesting snippets around Asia and the rest of the world 'in a salute to creativity, eccentricity and innovation in all of their varied forms'.
MTV Networks Asia president Peter Jamieson said the programme was named Out of the Box 'because it features the extraordinary, the outrageous, clever, weird and wonderful and because it takes the viewer out of the zone of what's normal and everyday'.
'The great thing about [it] is that it's limited only by one's imagination.' The show is also in line with Philips' youth marketing programme, according to Koos Breen, managing director of Philips Sound and Vision. 'MTV was the channel able to create something which we feel is on target with our strategy and has elements that make it more than just another television programme,' he said.
Among the first vignettes to air have been a qi gong master 'absorbing' qi from a tree and whizkids who use the abacus for maths calculations in record-breaking time.
Initial plans were for five segments to run at different times of the day throughout the week, with a new segment being introduced each week. The show's producers will also consider ideas from viewers for future segments.
