SEOUL, Oct. 17 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s homegrown streaming media service platforms are diversifying from films and drama series towards other services as part of efforts to reinvigorate stagnating growth in subscriber numbers. Watcha recently launched a webtoon platform Watcha Webtoon service with a focus on differentiation by acquiring exclusive rights for new original [...]
BUSAN, Oct. 9 (Korea Bizwire) — The Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) has constantly evolved to attract movie buffs and the Asian cinema industry, and this year it set an expanded stage for highly anticipated over-the-top (OTT) dramas to reflect their rising popularity. Running in full-scale without social distancing measures for the first time in [...]
NEW YORK, March 21 (Korea Bizwire) — Helbiz Inc. (NASDAQ: HLBZ), a global leader in micro-mobility and the first in its industry to be publicly listed on the Nasdaq, today announced an agreement between Helbiz Media, the company’s media arm and streaming entertainment service, and Major League Baseball (MLB), the North American professional baseball league, [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 22 (Korea Bizwire) — Watcha, a homegrown over-the-top service, said Tuesday it plans to kick off a new platform that provides music and webtoon contents in addition to its current video streaming service. The latest move comes amid growing competition in the local video streaming market led by global streaming giant Netflix, followed [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 25 (Korea Bizwire) — SK Broadband Co., a major South Korean internet service provider (ISP), on Tuesday launched a new all-in-one platform that offers content from five streaming services, including Apple TV+. The company’s latest PlayZ platform allows users to search and watch media content from five over-the-top services, including homegrown players Wavve, [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 20 (Korea Bizwire) — Over 34 percent of South Koreans were paid subscribers to over-the-top (OTT) media, or video streaming services, a survey showed Thursday. Paid subscribers to OTTs stood at 34.8 percent last year, up 20.4 percentage points from the previous year, according to a survey of 6,834 people over the age [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 7 (Korea Bizwire) — Kim Su-yeon, a 39-year old office worker based in Seoul, loves to binge watch Korean TV series on weekends or holidays on the small old TV in her room. Last week, she finished the latest episodes of romance series like “Melancholia,” “Reflection of You,” “The King’s Affection” and “The [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 18 (Korea Bizwire) — Kim Eun-hee, 41, is a casual moviegoer who would normally go to theaters once or twice a month to hang out with friends on weekends. But last year, she never once went to the cinema, partly out of fears of possibly being infected with the novel coronavirus in a [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 2 (Korea Bizwire) — Over 66 percent of South Koreans used over-the-top (OTT) media, or video streaming services, last year amid the stay-at-home trend driven by the pandemic, a survey showed Tuesday. South Korea’s OTT usage rate stood at 66.3 percent in 2020, compared with 52 percent the previous year, according to a [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 27 (Korea Bizwire) — The fast-growing South Korean video streaming service market has entered a new phase as local over-the-top (OTT) service operator Tving pulled off a sharp increase in its users last year, data showed Wednesday. Tving gained two notches to finish third in the latest ranking of OTT service providers released [...]