Tving is playing Catchup in Korea’s growing video streaming market

Tving, the video streaming platform owned by CJ ENM, Naver and JTBC, was the biggest gainer in a robust first half for streaming in South Korea.

A new report by research and consulting firms AMPD and Media Partners Asia showed the Korean subscription video-on-demand market growing by 705,000 subscribers to 20.8 million by the end of June. Sector revenue rose 11% year-over-year to $922 million. Viewing time increased by 5% to 103 billion minutes.

While Netflix remains the premium VOD leader in Korea with a 43% share of revenue and 37% of audience, Tving was the biggest gainer in the first half of the year.

It enjoyed a third of all net new subscriptions and had 4.2 million total subscribers at the end of June. Tving accounted for 30% of premium VOD audience (up from 24%) and captured 15% of premium VOD revenue. “Tving’s growth is anchored by popular tvN and JTBC network dramas, variety and originals,” the report said. “The introduction of a new level of advertising helped to increase users by half, with monthly active users exceeding 11.5 million.”

In the broader Korean video streaming market (including premium VOD, AVOD, SVOD and mobile live streaming platforms), the market totaled 534 billion minutes watched in the first six months of 2024, up 24% from from a previous year. YouTube is the overall leader in the VOD category and continues to gain share, reaching 80% of all VOD views.

“Local content captured 77% of VOD premium category engagement and 75% of customer acquisition in (the first half), with key drama and variety hits from Tving, Netflix, Coupang Play and Disney+. An abundance of local dramas and variety releases on major VOD platforms is driving viewership, with over 200 titles contributing to 80% of Korean content demand,” said Dhivya T, Senior Analyst and Head of Information at AMPD. “Tving led hits across scripted and unscripted titles, owning 10 of the top 15 titles (7 distributed across platforms). Other key platforms include Netflix with seven of the top 15 titles. Disney+ Originals

Coupang Play’s sports and originals also made it. CJ ENM produced six of the top 15 titles in the first half of 2024.”

In terms of Korea’s premium VOD audience market share, Netflix accounted for 37%. Tving 30%, Wavve 18%, Coupang Play 9%, Disney+ 5%, U+ Mobile and Watcha 1% each in the first half of the year.