NBC Universal to Provide New Streaming Platforms for Korean Content Via Wavve

A memorandum of agreement between Wavve and NBCUniversal took effect on Sunday, April 12. Wavve is one of South Korea's newest popular streaming video platforms. They will be responsible for preparing Korean content for the said network. 

The deal holds 3 years working relationship, which will handle films and televisions series. The agreement took a global reach and Korea was an exemption. Thanks to NBCUniversal Japan, it will cover South Korea to release content across countries. 

NBCUniversal made bigger plans for its viewers and nationwide reach. They are a branch company of Comcast, wherein they plan to start Peacock, an OTT subscription service for 2020. The partnership will cover between SK Telecom and the 3 Korean TV broadcasters KBS, MBC, and SBS. The agreement will cover licensing content. Thus, it will allow NBCUniversal to put money in productions of Korean content. Their aim is to broadcast Korean series worldwide, the same as how Netflix made success in the past four years.

Both companies carried an agreement for funding Korean content in development and production. Content Wavve aims to invest $50 million (KRW 60 billion) within a year. The goal is to make original Korean content and production. Last year, Korean financial investors supported Wavve with an amount of $167 million (KRW 200 billion). The company produces various Korean TV drama series, patronized by Korean consumers.

Wavve is a local company in South Korea that aims to penetrate Southeast Asian countries. Their goal is to counter the influence of Netflix in regards to video streaming. Although the strategy is not in their favor yet, they tried to focus on creating Korean content and offer them other networks.

The company opened in business in August of last year, as the Korean government allowed them to launch in their production. Pooq and Oksusu, other local streaming video platforms with altogether 14 million subscribers, both collaborated and launched Wavve. 

In previous years, US consumers would watch Korean productions through Rakuten, Viki, DramaFever. In 2016, DramaFever gained 400,000 subscribers, and Warner Bros. took it as a subsidiary company. But in 2018, DramaFever stopped in Korean streaming for offshore countries.

The streaming videos boomed in 2016 as Netflix entered the market. The company broadcast Korean productions in other international countries. They even invested in making their original Korean series. Their first-ever Korean zombie drama "Kingdom" made hits around the globe. Though at first, Netflix was not supported by other local networks, their marketing and content strategy change their ratings. Their subscriptions went high and attracted more than a million consumers let alone on Android mobile devices in Korea.

Currently, Netflix reached more than 2.4 million users in South Korea.