Korea’s premium VOD industry gained strength in Q3’2023 with viewership up 15% quarter-on-quarter, according to a new report from Media Partners Asia (MPA). The report leverages MPA’s consumer insights platform AMPD Research to track online video viewership trends across key VOD services on mobile devices.
The report found that Korean SVOD platforms added 716,000 net new subscribers to reach 19 million subscriptions in Q3’2023, with Disney+, Netflix and Tving leading growth. Disney+ with hit original drama Moving boosted subscriber acquisition. Disney+ closed Q3’2023 with 2 million subscribers.
“Deepening engagement across Disney+ and Tving, and robust subscriber growth boosted premium VOD viewership in Korea in Q3’2023. SVOD leaders continue to grow subscribers from strong local content pipelines and an abundance of drama and variety releases; Tving’s popular reality hits tap into large network audiences such as tvN’s Earth Arcade, while Disney+ had its first major original hit with Moving. Tving and Netflix lead in number of exclusive local titles, and along with Wavve, captured 80% of Korea’s premium VOD viewership in Q3 2023,” Vivek Couto, executive director, MPA, said.
Netflix maintained category leadership with robust growth, capturing 29% of new subscriptions in Q3’2023 to reach 6.5 million subscribers and 35% of premium VOD viewership with Tving (3.8 million, 26%) and Wavve (3 million, 20%) follow.