What is tving? An OTT, online TV/video service geo-blocked for Korea, offering real-time TV channels from T-DMB/cable TV operators, and VOD movies/TV shows via PCs, smartphones, tablets and more.

Why did you call it ‘tving’? “In a mobile-dominated TV world, ‘tving’ symbolises a sense of freshness, modernity, a revolution of the old-fashion TV. The ‘ing’ in ‘tving’ also means an active and evolving optimum service for watching videos.”

Launch tving started off as a sub-menu for a video service under Korean player app, Gom TV, in May 2010. In March 2011, after six months of development, the service was re-launched as tving, a separate, independent video service targeting mobile/smartphone users in Korea.

Who’s who... Jung Ji Hyun, general manager business team; Park Hun Ju, general manager, tech team

Head count 70+ people in the tving team

Offering 140+ real-time channels and 110,000+ local/international VOD content, including movies and the latest TV titles with TV replay. Offers 80+ channels for free, including professional baseball games, YTN and JTBC. Promises the best N-screen service in HD-quality video on all internet-connected devices in Korea.

Rates Won2,900/US$3 a month for all real-time channels. Won4,900/US$4 a month for unlimited VOD. PPV TV drama costs Won1,000/US$1 per title. Latest movie costs Won10,000+/US$10+ per title and old movies range from Won1,000/US$1 to Won4,000/US$3 per title.

Subscribers 7 million registered users

Target 20s-30s, web/mobile VOD users

Social media “We use social network services (especially Facebook) to promote events and introduce newly updated content... we also focus on discussions about content-related issues and celebrities, which makes viewers share and recommend them easily.”

New titles/month On average 40-50 new movie titles and two to three new TV series

Content partners Broadcasters (KBS, MBC, SBS), cable channel E&M for TV shows/movies and JTBC for overall content

Looking for... “We launched a TV connected tving stick last year and are sourcing the right content, such as concert/music videos, meant to be watched on a bigger screen.”

Original content “We produced and aired Drop Out, a spin-off of Korean singing competition show Superstar K, featuring rejects from the off-air preliminary rounds. However, due to lack of response and high marketing costs, we discontinued... [We] hope to make original production a part of our programming strategy in the future.”

Tech Uses in-house CJ HelloVision’s IDC and N/W infrastructure

Challenges “Piracy has been an ongoing issue. We will continue to highlight the benefits of legal online content and work closely with the government. To tackle this issue permanently, all related parties need to work together.”

Priorities “Preparing expansion to TV screen in earnest. As the OTT industry becomes more competitive and less profitable, TV screen will be a foothold to seek new opportunities.”

The best thing that has happened to Korea’s OTT industry “There is less competition in OTT now, especially the subscription business model, since we learned that the strategy is pricing. To compete with traditional pay TV, where the entry price is about US$3-US$7/month, tving charges US$3. This pushes advertisers and emerging home shopping channels to choose OTT platforms. Online/mobile ads and transaction margins from TV shopping channels are critical in profit earnings for OTT service providers.”

The biggest impact on the OTT industry in Asia… “Netflix’s aggressive expansion into Asian market, armed with original content. It is expected that Netflix’s original content will be injected with Asian casts and/or Asian backgrounds/settings to attract the Asian viewers. Just like how YouTube became an influential online video player with nearly 70% share, it is a concern how local video platforms would struggle harder as Netflix enters the Asian pay-TV market.”