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Netflix subscribers tripled to 900,000 in Korea over a year

Netflix subscribers tripled to 900,000 in Korea over a year

Posted December. 14, 2018 07:42,   

Updated December. 14, 2018 07:42

한국어

Without a doubt, the buzzword of this year's broadcasting industry was Netflix. Among the 24 respondents for our survey, 10 pointed out Netflix’s rapid growth as the most outstanding news for the industry.

“Netflix is going to make more massive investments in Korea as the country is the strategic hub in Asia,” Netflix COO said at a press conference held in Singapore last month. “Korea offers the content that is loved by the global audience, with the world’s best Internet infrastructure.”

Having invested more than 30 billion won in "Mr. Sunshine," a show chosen as the drama of the year, Netflix has produced a number of Korean entertainment shows for global audience including the Busted!, which was starred by Yoo Jae-suk, and YG Future Strategy Office, in co-production with YG Entertainment.

So far, Netflix has attracted roughly 900,000 subscribers (as of September) in South Korea, jumping nearly by three times from last year (320,000). “Televisions used to be the insurmountable media of the day, but the times are gone,” said Kim Gong-sook, a professor of the Department of Convergence Content at Andong National University. “The potential impact that the aggressive investments by foreign companies including Netflix will have is a source of both concerns and expectations,” said Lee Jin-min, a TV producer of Channel A.

Other issues, such as the “introduction of the 52-hour a week policy” (seven votes, ranked 2nd) and “#MeToo movement in the broadcasting industry” (five votes, ranked 3rd), also drew a great deal of attention. “The rampant practice of overwork in the industry will make a swift progress towards change,” said SBS producer Lee Yong-suk, adding that a failure to establish a working profit structure against production costs could lead to a massive market chaos. “After the MeToo movement, the practice of sexual harassment by male producers has fallen significantly in numbers,” said Kim Seon-myeong, an author.


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