[Anchor]
The drama 'Manager Kim' is making headlines as a rare TV series to surpass 20% in viewership ratings. It has also hit number one globally on Netflix. Recently, K-content has been finding success by blurring the lines between traditional TV and OTT platforms.
Reporter Lee Joo-hyoung has the story.
[Reporter]
Actor Yoon Kyung-ho held an autograph session and appeared on a live radio broadcast to fulfill a viewership pledge.
[Yoon Kyung-ho/Actor: I am so incredibly grateful to the viewers who helped us reach such a phenomenal record of 22.3%.]
The SBS drama 'Manager Kim' hit the 20% viewership mark in just four episodes. It is the first time a TV drama has crossed the 20% threshold in about two years, since tvN's 'Queen of Tears'.
'Manager Kim' is also popular on OTT platforms.
It has topped the Netflix global non-English TV show chart for two consecutive weeks, in addition to its success in Korea.
Recently, it has become common for K-content to succeed on both TV and OTT simultaneously.
Korean content accounts for 8.9% of total viewing time on Netflix, the second highest after the United States, and the vast majority of K-content distributed by Netflix is originally TV content.
The boundary between TV and OTT is fading.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Netflix is considering not only live channels but also bundled products with other OTT services.
In short, it is the "TV-fication" of OTT.
Meanwhile, the TV industry is seeking breakthroughs to address the burden of production costs, which have been driven up by OTT, through new planning and production methods.
In the case of 'Manager Kim', about three minutes of the second episode were produced entirely with AI-generated video, reducing costs by more than half.
[Ryu Jae-hwan/Vice President of Morpheus Studio, the AI production company for 'Manager Kim': The first discussion (with the production team) was to test whether we could produce the entire sequence using AI.]
It is true that the Korean film, drama, and TV industries have gained global recognition and secured production budgets through global OTT platforms, as seen with 'Squid Game'.
However, in that process, intellectual property rights were often handed over, and it was difficult to guarantee profits commensurate with the success of the content.
Global OTT platforms have grown their subscriber bases by leveraging cost-effective K-content, but they, too, are now facing the limits of growth.
Content is crossing between platforms, and platforms are beginning to resemble TV.
Where the boundaries have disappeared, the video industry is entering a new phase.
(Video courtesy of Netflix | Reported by Choi Ho-jun and Park Jin-ho | Video editing by Shin Se-eun | Design by Hwang Se-yeon | VJ: Oh Se-gwan)
※
Copying, redistribution, and unauthorized use in AI training are strictly prohibited.