KOREA Country Of Honour
Original Wavve show Lie Of Lies
Korea may have been a late entrant into the streaming race, but its leading broadcasters and entertainment companies are already challenging the global giants, powered by their country’s techcentric economy and tech-savvy consumers. Juliana Koranteng reports
KOREA’S OTT PLATFORMS
Homemade in Korea KOREAN streaming-TV platforms’ relative late start in 2018 (compared to Netflix’s 2007 launch) has not stopped them from making a massive impact on both the local and international market. Korea’s lucrative local pay-TV market still flourishes. However, the country’s streaming operations, led by Wavve, Tving and Seezn, want to go big both at home and abroad with nothing less than the most engaging original and acquired content. “Korean consumers watch videos on various devices, such as PC, mobile and tablet. Watching videos on mobile phones is also steadily increasing,” says Wavve CEO Lee Tae-hyun. “According to a recent report by a domestic research agency, the proportion of video-usage time was ranked first on mobile, accounting for 20% of the total — an increase of three percentage points from last year.”
Country Focus• 24 • OCTOBER 2020
Watching videos on mobile is steadily increasing. According to a recent report, the proportion of video-usage time was ranked first on mobile, accounting for 20% of the total Lee Tae-hyun Streaming rival Tving, a subsidiary of Korean broadcast and entertainment behemoth CJ ENM, which has significant interests in K-drama and K-pop, says its strategy is influenced by Koreans’ entrenched multi-device viewing habits.
