Seoul, Korea – CJ E&M announced on April 8 that it has finalised a contract with Vietnamese state broadcaster VTV for ongoing co-production of dramas, with the programme Forever Young (working title) to be their first project together. The agreement marks the first time a Korean broadcaster will produce television content in cooperation with Vietnamese partners.

At the contract signing ceremony

Over 36 episodes, Forever Young will portray the story of a wealthy Vietnamese girl, Thuy Linh, who comes to Korea to study and lives with students from other foreign countries. VTV’s general entertainment channel VTV3 will begin airing the drama on Thursday and Friday evenings at 8.30pm for five months starting in December 2014. CJ E&M’s Southeast Asia network, channel M, is also planning to broadcast the drama to 10 countries in the region (reach: seven million homes).

For its part, CJ E&M will supply core manpower for script development, art, and post-production. On the Vietnamese side, top producer Hai will direct the project, and VFC, VTV’s drama production entity, will provide production infrastructure.

“Moving beyond sales of already completed contents, CJ E&M is advancing a new model of global collaboration for the market,” said Sung-su Kim, CEO of CJ E&M. “Our work with VTV on Forever Young is particularly meaningful as the first TV content to be co-produced by the two companies. With its strong young adult demographic, Vietnam contains high growth potential for the cultural content market, and we are excited about the opportunity for continued cultural exchange and cooperation.”