ADRN

The KF Korea Workshop is hosted by the Korea Foundation(KF) and organized by the East Asia Institute(EAI) to promote and share understanding of Korean social, political and economic issues among international residents in Korea.

For the first lecture of 2019 KF Korea Workshop 2, Mr. Hyung Jin Cho, Co-CEO of Chorokbaem Media spoke about “K-Drama and Entertainment” under the theme of [Korean Enterprises].

Mr. Cho based his lecture from surveys that had been conducted on foreigners and their perception of “Hallyu,” or the Korean Wave. He highlighted how K-Pop is relatively less popular than other Korean cultural contents among foreigners, which came as a surprise for many students. In addition, within the Korean entertainment industry, the physical traits of actors and actresses were influential in determining the content’s popularity whereas the language barrier acted as an obstacle in the overall affinity of foreigners toward Korean cultural contents.

Following his discussion of the survey findings, Mr. Cho provided a historical overview of the Korean entertainment history. During the first stage of the value-chain, the three major public channels dominated the industry, causing a limitation in production funding and content diversity. Compared to the first stage, the second stage of the value-chain introduced other networks and cable channels including JTBC, NETFLIX, and over-the-top(OTT), providing Korean dramas additional routes for accessing the global market with increased production funding and content diversity. As of now, we are in the midst of the third stage of the value-chain, with variations in both domestic and international OTT markets, heightened competition within the entertainment platform and further diversification of drama contents.

As such, “the emphasis on content” increased alongside the rise of new platforms for streaming media, and the role of writers became even more important in the production of dramas. Furthermore, the recent trend in popularity addresses dramas based on web-toons or web-novels.

Throughout the Q&A session, Mr. Cho provided future outlooks on the OTT platform, analyzed the developmental prospects of Korean dramas and their ability to retain the unique “Korean” identity upon entry into the global entertainment industry.