The Asia Video Industry Association (AVIA), in partnership with the Korean Creative Content Agency (KOCCA), held Korea in View @BCWW on 29 August to much success, hosting over 300 delegates at COEX, as part of the 3-day global broadcasting content convention.

The conference opened with a special welcome address by Eun Young Kang, Director of the Broadcast & Advertisement Policy Division, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, before going deep into insights on the next chapter of the Korean content boom and how the industry could emerge from this “correction period”. 

For Marianne Lee, Chief of Content Acquisition and Development, Viu, the correction period was driven by the increase in production costs which had jumped four-fold in the last decade, and it was crucial for the industry to work collectively to optimize monetization and keep pace with costs in order to recover as quickly as possible.

Hyun Park, CEO, Alquimista Media, was confident that if Korea and the broader Asia region produced great content, it could fill a void in the streaming world that was not being supplied by the US due the events that had occurred over the last years, including the pandemic and the Hollywood strikes.

“Streaming has democratized content in a significant way, and viewers are voting for Asian content, with 14b hours of Asian content consumed globally in 2023,” said Vivek Couto, Managing and Executive Director, Media Partners Asia. Asian titles also drove 80% of premium video engagement and acquisition in APAC, with Korean content particularly significant in Southeast Asia and Taiwan, driving over 30% of viewership and contributing up to 30% in viewer acquisition.

Couto also added that Korea was just in the “second innings” in the streaming industry, with the pace of change far more significant in the advertising space. And in a market like Korea, with most consumers having 2 – 3 subscriptions per household, there was an opportunity to replicate the pay TV bundle and grow the pie through that.

Discussing the resilience of linear TV, Ana Bautista, Head of Strategy – Asia, BBC Studios, also said that establishing connections, relationships and deeper partnerships to understand each other’s needs and where the market was headed was key, particularly in Asia and Korea. While Changhoon Lee, Head of Media & Content Business Unit, SK Broadband, opined that the lack of personalization was a key issue the industry was facing from the IPTV perspective, but this offered an opportunity to transform into an AI media platform which would make it more competitive against the streaming giants.

The significant growth of streaming has not, however, seen a corresponding increase in advertising revenue.  “Measurement is the underpinning currency and determines where the dollars will go, “said Chris Mottershead, Commercial Director – JAPAC, Publica. But with various constituents having differing objectives and levels of data all held within their own walled gardens, it remained a problem for the industry. On a more optimistic note, Mottershead added “We are starting to see a closing of the loop,” with a unifying of data across the viewing journey, from linear TV to IP and streaming.

Korea in View is proudly sponsored by Lead Sponsor Cultural and Creative Industries Development Agency; Gold Sponsors Publica and TV5Monde; Silver Sponsor Invidi and Official Partner Korean Creative Content Agency (KOCCA).