Despite the comparatively high uptake of online, mobile and IPTV in South Korea, domestic TV still dominates both in terms of media consumption and viewer ratings. And while the country waits for its economy, and its currency, to recover, Korean broadcasters seem upbeat about the performance of their latest offerings. According to Kim Young Won, deputy managing director, SBS Productions, SBS’ Brilliant Legacy is doing very well domestically, “with rating ratio going up to almost 40 percent and rating share over 50 percent.” The series depicts the love and jealousy among four young men and women who work for a food company. While Korean content is still doing well on TV screens in Korea, Kim revealed that famous Hollywood drama series like CSI and Gray Anatomy are telecast during the late hours to avoid competing with Korean drama serials. Kim notes that Korean content is still popular in some countries in Asia but going down in others. “In Japan, which is the biggest and most important market, Korean content has come to stay, especially in the DVD rental market. In addition to success in Asia, Korean content is exploring new markets like the Middle East, Africa and North America.” “At the moment, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan buy the most Korean content, with the highest sales amount coming from Japan. Korean historical drama serials are selling well and score good rating in Japan,” said Kim. Although Korean drama is still the dominant genre for TV audiences, Kim says that due to high production costs, TV stations are trying to get other alternatives like reality shows. SBS is currently producing new drama serials, Swallow the Sun and Style. Swallow the Sun is SBS’ next big budget project, and is the sequel to the hit drama, All In. Style is a story about people working for a fashion magazine. Regarding the impact of HD and new media on Korean content production, Kim feels that new media help production houses recoup their budget. “A lot of audiences are still watching from websites of TV stations and adverting revenue from DMB service is slowly going up. Most of all, they just started to impose a charge on downloading from P2P service which had been done illegally,” notes Kim. MBC’s costume drama The Great Queen Seondeok which started broadcasting from May 2009, marked the highest rating at 31.96 percent, according to Haewon Chin, senior marketing manager, international business department, MBC. Chin thinks that the drama, which will be on air till the end of 2009, will see its ratings rise further. The Great Queen Seondeok is the story of the Queen of Korea’s Silla Dynasty in the seventh century. The drama depicts the mystery of the royal birth, the struggles for power and uses humanism to capture viewers. Produced and written by the production team of Jewel in the Palace, Chin expects The Great Queen Seondeok to leave a deep impression on TV audiences. Chin thinks that Korean content is faring well on TV screens in Korea. “Prime time is covered by drama series, news, and entertainment programs. Documentaries and informational programs are also doing good especially in accordance to the topics,” she notes. She added that Korean content is still popular with Asian and international audiences. “There are slight differences among each country for their favorites, but once the content quality is good and successful in Korea, it is also successful and popular to international audiences too,” she said. While Japan buys the most Korean content, MBC sells many mini series (16-20 episode dramas) to Japan and Vietnam, and long drama series ( longer than 50 episodes) to Taiwan. “But of course, no matter how long the series and genre is, if the content quality is good, it will sell well in all international countries,” Chin asserts, while noting that MBC content is getting popular in Middle Eastern countries. Chin adds that both internationally and domestically, drama is still the dominant genre. “Internationally, our sales for documentaries and entertaining programs are increasing. Domestically, factual and current issue related programs are very important and is a popular genre to Korean audiences,” she said. Besides The Great Queen Seondeok, MBC will be showing a summer horror drama, Possessed from August 2009. Possessed is a story of a teenage girl who seeks revenge for the wrongful death of her sister. For several years, MBC’s dramas have been broadcast in HD. While the content for new media such as mobile and internet is also increasing in production, Chin states that at this point in time, TV content is mostly shown via mobile and internet. KBS’s weekend drama, My Too Perfect Sons and new daily drama, Jolly Widows had viewership ratings of over 25 percent and 15 percent respectively. KBS News 9 continues to be at the top amongst news programs, while other distinguished programs include KBS’ weekend entertainment shows, Happy Sunday and Gag Concert – with record ratings of over 20 percent respectively. Happy Sunday – Two Days and One Night, which aired on June 29, set up the new highest rating record – 43.3 percent per minute. The reality variety show features five friends of distinct characteristics taking off on a memorable two-day-road-trip around Korea. Boys over Flowers, about a poor but bright girl who experiences love and friendship in an high school exclusively for the rich remains KBS’s most popular drama in the first half of 2009. According to KBS, the rating for the last episode was 34.9 percent. “Last year we exported US$63 million of KBS programs to 30 countries all over the world including Asia, the Middle East, Europe and USA. Asia is the most important market in terms of sales volume. This is especially so when Hallyu, the Korean wave, is still strong in countries like Japan and Taiwan,” notes Oh-Suk Kwon, head, new media business team, KBS World. “TV households around the world are our potential audiences, but we would rather estimate our potential audience in terms of KBS’s international channel, KBS World. As of June 2009, KBS World is available to 42 million households in 70 countries. This figure itself is significant. Imagine 42 million households (or 208 million audience) in the global market enjoying KBS programmes every minute and day,” adds Kwon. On the variations in the popularity of programs across the various territories, Kwon acknowledged that there are indeed slight variations across the countries, though “generalization might be dangerous.” In the case of romantic dramas, KBS expects big sales in Japan, as Japanese female viewers are deeply fond of this kind of genre. “Our experience tells that American viewers like to watch oriental epic dramas. Korean epic drama is one of their favorites. They have curiosity about tradition, costume and culture of Korea which has perpetual history. As for Chinese audiences, they love to see KBS’s weekend dramas because these dramas mainly unfold stories about loves between families and generations rather than only between young lovers. Viewers in the Middle East seem to appreciate epic and historical dramas such as Emperor of the Sea. And most buyers and broadcasters in South-East Asia prefer romantic comedies to authentic melodramas,” said Kwon. The latest KBS TV dramas that were sold to other countries include mini-series, Again, My Love (sold to Japan, Taiwan, China, Vietnam and Myanmar), The Accidental Couple (sold to Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Vietnam) and The Slingshot (sold to Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong and Vietnam). Kwon revealed that KBS is in the midst of preparing the new line-ups for the second half. Though not confirmed, the new line-ups are expected to include The Slaves Hunters, Lady Castle and Korean Ghost Stories. One of KBS’ most popular weekend dramas, Famous Princess has been broadcast in China by Hunan Satellite TV this year. According to Kwon, response to this drama was tremendous. “The highest rating was 3.1 percent and the average was 2.21 percent. It kept the top place in the rating for the same broadcasting time.” Hwangjini was the second Korean drama broadcast by NHK’s terrestrial TV network in succession to Winter Sonata. “Response was quite good – though – not as much as when Winter Sonata was shown in Japan, when it created the initial Korean Wave syndrome.” The biggest DVD market for Korean drama is currently Japan. “Most Japanese major DVD distributors are our major buyers. Since last year, there has been fierce competition for buying KBS epic dramas amongst Japanese DVD distributors because of the emerging trend of the Japanese viewers to watch Korean epic dramas. Nowadays, KBS epic dramas like King Dae Joyeong, are being rented and sold ceaselessly through Japanese rental shops and other KBS epic dramas are prepared to be released soon,” says Kwon. Of late, KBS has sold the rights of remaking KBS dramas to Japan, China, Vietnam and Philippines. “We made a contract with William Morris Agency to facilitate format deals in USA. Most format buyers show interests in the unique story line of Korean dramas and interesting format of entertainments. Formats of some quiz show, marital drama seem to be attractive to foreign broadcasters,” added Kwon. Although Korean content is still popular with Asian and international audiences, Moon H. Lee, sales & contents manager of Arirang TV says that some buyers are turning to China. “The biggest reason is the cost and license fee. But in the case of Japan, Korean content is doing well in spite of the high cost. This is also why MBC and KBS are placing so much emphasis on the Japan market, which includes the extension of the channel business,” notes Lee. And what of the challenges facing Korean TV dramas? “Production costs have soared rapidly in Korea. To make matters worse, advertising revenue has plummeted because of the economic crisis. As a flagship public service broadcaster, one of the newest challenges is to keep the overall quality of Korean dramas while cutting down the production costs and going through this economic slump. It definitely is a concern and it is not easy to get the best solution. However, we are trying to solve the problem and I think we will carry out discussions with the leading actors, actresses, writers as well as the production companies in order to overcome this crisis together,” said Kwon.