About 10,000TB of video data consumed daily by S. Korean smartphone users : government data

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• International OTT Forum Explores New Directions for Broadcasting and Media Industry A forum was held to explore the development direction of the broadcasting and media industry, including online video services (OTT).The Broadcasting and Media Communications Commission (BMCC) announced that it hosted the '2026 International OTT Forum' on November 5 to support the successful overseas expansion of OTT operators and to seek and share innovative strategies for a sustainable industry.The forum, themed 'New Future Shaped by Streaming Waves,' was convened to discuss new transitions and collaboration strategies in the broadcasting and media industry amid the rise of OTT and ad-supported free streaming TV (FAST).The keynote address was delivered by David Salmon, Global Business Vice President of FAST operator Tubi, who spoke on 'The Future of Global Streaming: New Trends Driven by Fandom.'In the first session, Shengxiang, head of marketing research at China's leading platform Xiaohongshu, and Seo Hwang-wook, head of YouTube Korea and Greater China content partnerships at Google Korea, presented on 'Monetization Strategies for Platforms.'Kang Yoo-jin, head of strategy at Tving, shared growth strategies for the domestic OTT industry under the topic 'Future Strategies for K-OTT.'The second session featured content production experts, including writer No Ga-young, producer Jo Eun-jin, and producer Park Hyun-yong, who shared insights on the development direction and strategies for domestic broadcasting media platforms and the content industry.In the third session, Karenza Samanidis, head of iPlayer at the BBC, and Kim Jin-man, head of production at Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), discussed 'Diversification Strategies for Platforms.'Finally, a special session was held featuring 'Westworld,' which won the Deputy Minister's Award in the investment attraction showcase category at the '2026 Korea International Streaming Festival' held in June.The BMCC strengthened policy cooperation in the digital media sector between the two ministries by providing AI simultaneous interpretation subtitle services using technology from Hudson AI, which has grown through the Ministry of Science and ICT's 'AI Dubbing Specialized K-FAST Expansion Support' project.Ryu Shin-hwan, chairman of the BMCC, stated, "Through this event, we will continue to expand cooperation between the domestic and international broadcasting media industries, as well as between governments, and strive to enhance the competitiveness of the domestic industry and the global expansion of Korean content based on innovation and coexistence in the rapidly changing media environment."* This article has been translated by AI.
• OTT killed the cinema. Korea's hottest summer revives it This photo provided by CJ ENM show the overview of CGV with crowd of people waiting for their movie to start SEOUL, August 10 (AJP) - South Korea’s longest summer heat wave has breathed new life into a pastime and industry nearly killed by streaming — moviegoing and theaters. For couples like Kim Soo-hyun, 29, the once-standard weekend date outdoors has become almost impossible. “It’s been really hard to go on dates on weekends because it’s so hot,” said Kim, an office worker living in southern Seoul’s Seocho district. “The car is cool and comfortable, but the moment we get out and start walking, it becomes really difficult.” She and her boyfriend gravitate toward air-conditioned mall complexes where they can eat, shop and catch a movie without stepping back into the heat. Kim’s routine reflects a broader shift playing out across South Korea’s multiplexes. This photo provided by CJ ENM show the theater with giant CGV sign welcoming visitors. The record heat has given fresh relevance to a strategy already under way at CGV, Lotte Cinema and Megabox: making theaters about more than simply watching a film. Premium seats, late-night screenings, book clubs, concerts and other alternative programming are turning cinemas into places where people can spend several hours rather than watch a movie and leave. The question is whether that can become a genuine survival strategy for an industry still struggling to recover its pre-pandemic audience — or whether this summer’s rush will disappear with the heat. A summer for the record books The weather has certainly helped. Yangsan in southeastern South Korea reached 42.5 degrees Celsius in early August, the highest temperature recorded in the country in 122 years. President Lee Jae Myung called the prolonged heat wave a “national disaster” and ordered an intensified government response. The extreme weather arrived just as cinemas were beginning to show signs of recovery. South Korean theaters drew 57.05 million admissions in the first half of 2026, up 34.2 percent from a year earlier, while box-office revenue rose to 579 billion won, according to the Korean Film Council. Yet admissions were still only 56.5 percent of the average recorded in the first halves of 2017 through 2019, showing how far the industry remains from its pre-pandemic scale. The rebound accelerated during the height of this summer’s heat. Nationwide theaters drew 5.31 million moviegoers from Aug. 3 through Aug. 9, up 69.7 percent from 3.13 million during the comparable seven-day period a year earlier, according to daily data from the Korean Film Council’s KOBIS box-office system. Revenue jumped 80.3 percent to 55.21 billion won from 30.62 billion won. But heat alone cannot explain the surge. “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” and Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” together accounted for 4.40 million admissions, or 82.9 percent of all moviegoers during the week, showing just how heavily the rebound depended on blockbuster releases. Still, moviegoers say the crowds feel different. CGV's booking app hits its queue screen as ticket-hungry fans flood in: "High simultaneous traffic — please wait." 229 people in line, 8-second estimated wait. photo captured from social media account @TheStagney at X “The site told me to wait in a queue because so many people were trying to book at once,” said Choi Min-soo, 45, an office worker from eastern Seoul’s Gangdong district who was trying to see “Spider-Man.” “It made me wonder whether the film industry was actually picking back up.” Kim also described auditoriums and ticket counters as fuller than she remembered seeing in years. She has already watched three of the summer’s major releases and plans to return for a second viewing of “The Odyssey” in IMAX. Selling the room, not just the screen CGV has been unusually explicit about selling the cinema as refuge from the heat. On July 29, South Korea’s largest multiplex operator launched a summer campaign under the slogan “When there’s a heat wave, go to CGV,” pitching theaters as places where customers can spend the summer in air-conditioned comfort. CGV's ScreenX auditorium wraps the picture across three walls, pictured here promoting Spider-Man: Brand New Day, one of the two blockbusters driving Korea's current premium-format frenzy. Courtesy of CGV The promotion, which runs through Aug. 23, also rewards repeat visits and screenings in SCREENX auditoriums. But the effort to make theaters somewhere to stay, rather than merely somewhere to watch a movie, began well before this summer. In March, CGV turned its recliner-equipped Stressless Cinema at Cine de Chef Yongsan into a two-hour book club. Participants received copies of Andy Weir’s “Project Hail Mary,” along with food and beverages, and spent the session reading inside the auditorium. CGV described it as an attempt to offer a different kind of cultural experience inside a movie theater. In June, the chain went further. During BTS concerts in Busan, CGV operated an overnight “All Movie Night” at its Asiad branch, screening concert footage and films from late at night until the following morning. The company explicitly marketed the program as a comfortable place for concertgoers to stay after the show. The diversification extends beyond CGV. Lotte Cinema sells tickets for virtual-reality concert content alongside conventional films, while Megabox operates boutique and recliner auditoriums and programs cultural content under brands including Classic Society. For Kim, who watched “The Odyssey” at a boutique auditorium inside Megabox Coex, the appeal went far beyond air conditioning. “I basically watched it lying down — it was so comfortable,” she said. The premium price did not feel excessive, she added, compared with what a couple might otherwise spend on a weekend outing. The numbers suggest more moviegoers are willing to pay for experiences they cannot reproduce at home. Revenue from IMAX, 4D, SCREENX, Dolby Cinema and other special-format screenings reached 45.7 billion won in the first half of 2026, up 56.3 percent from a year earlier. Admissions to those formats rose 49 percent to 2.85 million. The crowd files out after catching the very first IMAX screening of The Odyssey on opening day. Photo captured from @Kmmm_777 via X That growth stands out because the overall cinema audience remains far below pre-pandemic levels. Theaters are no longer simply trying to bring people back through the doors. They are trying to make each visit something streaming cannot easily replace. “I don’t know if I’d say the theater is more convenient than streaming,” Choi said. “But there’s an appeal that’s unique to the cinema.” That distinction matters because the industry’s financial pain has hardly disappeared. South Korean theaters recorded 106.09 million admissions in 2025, down 13.8 percent from a year earlier, while box-office revenue fell 12.4 percent to 1.047 trillion won. Both declined for a second straight year. The Korean Film Council nevertheless identified one bright spot: special-format revenue jumped 46.3 percent to 111 billion won, which it linked to growing demand for experience-oriented moviegoing. Even CGV’s domestic operation remained in the red early this year. Its Korean business generated 175.4 billion won in first-quarter revenue, up 36.7 percent from a year earlier, but still posted an operating loss of 6.6 billion won. Conditions are more severe at Megabox JoongAng. The Seoul Bankruptcy Court opened rehabilitation proceedings for the cinema operator on June 30 after the company sought court protection to normalize its operations and remain a going concern. A proposed merger between Megabox and Lotte Cinema was also halted after the memorandum of understanding between their parent companies expired on June 30. The government, meanwhile, is spending public money to lure audiences back. Lotte Cinema World Tower's SUPER PLEX in Jamsil — the chain's flagship large-format auditorium, once Guinness-certified as the world's biggest cinema screen, with bean-bag and sofa-bed seating up front for full recline. Courtesy of Lotte Cinema A supplementary budget approved in April allocated 27.1 billion won for 4.5 million cinema discount vouchers worth 6,000 won each. After the first round, about 2.05 million vouchers were distributed in a second round beginning July 8 through CGV, Lotte Cinema, Megabox and CineQ. The Culture Ministry made the seasonal strategy unusually explicit. The title of its July 6 announcement promoting the second round asked: “How about the cinema as your summer vacation destination?” That makes this summer’s box-office rebound impossible to pin on one factor. Record heat has made air-conditioned indoor entertainment more attractive. Blockbusters have supplied the films people want to see. Government vouchers have made tickets cheaper. What the heat has done most clearly is give cinema operators a fresh way to sell the one thing Netflix, Disney+ and other streaming platforms cannot provide: the room itself. Whether book clubs, overnight screenings, recliners and premium auditoriums can materially change the economics of moviegoing — or merely deliver extra traffic during an extraordinary summer — remains uncertain. For Kim, however, the calculation is simpler. “No matter how far streaming comes,” she said, “it can never recreate the memory of eating popcorn in a theater, or that smell of butter the moment you walk in.”
• Coupang Play Gains Share With HBO Releases as Rivalry for No. 2 OTT Spot Intensifies (From left) Tving and Coupang Play. In April, the user gap between South Korea’s streaming services Tving and Coupang Play widened again. Mobile Index data released on the 4th showed Tving posted 7,708,645 monthly active users, while Coupang Play had 9,101,593. The difference was about 1.39 million users. Tving’s MAU fell 3.95% from the previous month, while Coupang Play rose 0.61%. Among major platforms, Netflix logged 14,799,836 MAU, down 7.02% from the prior month. Wavve rose 1.27% to 3,897,570. Disney+ had seen its February MAU jump by nearly 1 million due to a compensation program for customers affected by a KT hacking incident, but in April it fell 8.31% to 3,462,195. Coupang Play attributed its MAU increase to exclusive content, including new HBO titles and recently talked-about films. The film “The Man Who Lives With the King” was released exclusively on Coupang Play on April 29 through an individual purchase model. HBO original series “Euphoria Season 3” was also added. Tving, in its third year streaming KBO games, saw users decline in April. While the pro baseball season opening was expected to boost traffic, the platform showed limited gains in new users. Still, activity among existing users increased. A Tving official said, “MAU declined, but average daily active users rose by double digits from the previous month,” adding that repeat visits tied to the KBO League and Tving originals such as “Yumi’s Cells Season 3” and “Heart Signal 5” appeared to have helped increase viewing time. * This article has been translated by AI.