Tving Plays 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 year for streaming in South Korea.

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

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

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

In the wider Korean video streaming market (including premium VOD, AVOD, SVOD and live streaming platforms on mobile devices) the market totalled 534 billion minutes of viewing in the first six months of 2024, up 24% compared with a year earlier. YouTube is the overall VOD category leader and continues to gain share, reaching 80% of total VOD viewership.

“Local content captured 77% of premium VOD 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 drama and variety releases across major VOD platforms drive viewership, with over 200 titles contributing to 80% of Korean content demand,” said Dhivya T, lead analyst and head of insights at AMPD. “Tving led hits across scripted and unscripted titles, carrying 10 of the top 15 titles (7 shared across platforms). Other key platforms include Netflix with seven of the top 15 titles. Disney+ originals

Coupang Play’s sports and originals also broke through. CJ ENM produced six of the top 15 titles in 1H 2024.”

In terms of Korea’s premium VOD viewership 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.