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CJ ENM sets up new OTT production studio; eyes acquisition of “top-tier” production companies & talent in bid to upsize multi-studio structure
 
Korea’s entertainment conglomerate, CJ ENM, is setting up a studio dedicated exclusively to producing streaming content, the company said today, sparking off speculation about potential take-over targets as the new CJ ENM Studios eyes the acquisition of “top-tier production companies”.
The announcement coincided with a KOSDAQ online IR conference in which CJ said media production spend in 2022 would be KRW860 billion/US$709 million, and that new content would drive revenue growth.
The studios entity, led by biz dev/M&A specialist Yong Soo Ha as CEO, expands a content creation business currently housing Studio Dragon (“Crash Landing on You”, “Sweet Home”) and the recently acquired U.S.-based Endeavor Content, along with less high-profile drama producers Bon Factory (“What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim”) and JS Pictures (“Strong Girl Bong-soon”), and variety specialist, Studio Take One, among others.
CJ ENM, which also operates e-commerce, music and feature film divisions, said the multi-studio structure would “serve as one of CJ ENM’s core global competitiveness”.
CJ ENM also operates streaming platform Tving, which has been aggressively acquiring exclusive content rights and upped its ambitions for original production to between 40 and 50 productions for 2022.
The upsized targets coincide with Tving’s first play for audiences in the rest of Asia this year and international expansion in 2023.
Debuting in a global streaming landscape that can’t seem to get enough of Korean entertainment, the studio will “focus on OTT content production for a global audience and will cover a wide spectrum of different genres”.
In addition to growth through mergers/acquisition of “top-tier production companies”, the studio is on the hunt to attach “star talent/creators”, CJ ENM said this afternoon.
CJ ENM today described CJ ENM Studios, which will operate separately from its other production businesses, as “another basecamp for content production”.
The company said today it expected revenue this year to reach KRW4.3 trillion/US$3.55 billion, from KRW3.6 trillion/US$2.97 billion in 2021, with full-year operating profit of KRW270 billion/US$222.
CEO Yong Soo Ha, previously CJ ENM EVP and head of business development & investment, has been involved with the CJ Group since 2009 in various roles, including head of corporate business strategy for the group and head of management support division (CFO) at CJ ENM.
Mubi adds 15 Film Foundation classics to Malaysia streaming slate; includes Thailand’s “Mysterious Object at Noon” from Apichatpong Weerasethakul
 
Global streaming service Mubi has added 15 restored movies from Martin Scorses’s The Film Foundation to its platform in Malaysia, including Mohammad Reza Aslani’s “Chess Of The Wind” ( 1976), Mário Peixoto’s “Limite” (1931), and Thai indie producer/director Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s semi-documentary, “Mysterious Object at Noon” (2000), about a group of characters in the city.
The Film Foundation World Cinema Project involves collaborations with film archives and studios to restore/preserve films from around the world.
More than 925 films have been preserved to date.
“Chess Of The Wind”, which premiers on 11 April, is about the first lady of a noble house whose death sparks off a battle for her inheritance.
“Limite”, which follows on 21 April, is about three desperate people – two women and a man – at the limit of their existences talking about their pasts.
“Mysterious Object at Noon” is scheduled for October.
The May line up includes Lüfti Ö. Akad’s “Law of the Border” (1966), about a man living close to the Syrian border who tries to stay clean against the forces of circumstance; and Med Hondo’s “Oh, Sun” (1967), about an African migrant in France.
Other titles will be released from June.
 
 
Philippines’ Maria Ressa to deliver opening keynote at DW Global Media Forum in Germany in June
 
Philippines journalist and 2021 Nobel peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa will deliver the keynote address at this year’s 15th DW Global Media Forum, which takes place online and in person in Germany on 20-21 June.
Ressa, who will be speaking about “Journalism in political and informational crises”, is joined on this year’s line-up by, among others, Russian opposition leader, lawyer and anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny's political adviser, Leonid Volkov, and by Reuters’ editor-in-chief Alessandra Galloni.
Against a backdrop of war and escalating crises, this year’s Global Media Forum explores opportunities to foster resilient journalism in times of crisis, and looks at issues such as what the media can learn from dealing with crisis upon crisis, the role of media professionals in the wake of global digital transformation, and safeguarding journalism in an environment of increasing restraints to media freedom, pluralism and human rights.
 
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