KT chose’Midform’ as the core content to grow the online video service (OTT) platform’Seezn’ in 2021. KT produced the first original movie for the season in 2019, followed by’Big Mom’s Crazy Bongo’, which was released last January, and’Double Patty’ starring Shin Seung-ho and Bae Joo-hyun (Irene) scheduled to be released on the 17th. And the plan is to spur the production of the drama.
At the media distribution premiere of’Double Patty’ held on the 10th, director Baek Seung-hwan said, “We saw it as an opportunity to breathe on various screens such as mobile and TV in the media environment that is changing beyond just the theater and cooperated with the season.” “It’s an open platform and we want to keep working together,” he said.
Double Patty lead and director, (from left) Actor Shin Seung-ho, Bae Joo-hyun, and director Baek Seung-hwan (Photo = KT)
Season is a platform that KT launched in 2019 to expand its OTT business. Olleh TV Mobile, which was previously serviced, was renewed in line with the OTT market trend. It has more than 200 real-time broadcasting channels and more than 50,000 VOD contents, and about 160 original contents have been distributed for one year after the renewal.
The growth of the season is positive. According to KT, the number of app downloads increased by 40% during the year after launching the service. In particular, although the number of original content still accounts for less than 1% of the season, it is receiving high attention as more than a third of all customers watched it. As original content gained attention, the number of views during the season increased by 169% and viewing time by 261% compared to 2019. KT is also planning to invest a lot of money this year to create original content in order to differentiate it from other OTT platforms by focusing on this point.
KT has mainly focused on producing short form original contents for 10-15 minutes until 2020. In 2021, the direction will be reorganized to focus on the mid-form for 1 to 2 hours. Previously, more than 100 shortform original contents were produced, but it was not easy to secure’killer contents’ with weight instead. Accordingly, KT plans to strengthen its content production capabilities and secure killer content, focusing on mid-form original movies this year.
KT Season Growth Infographic (Source = KT)
KT’s confidence in the OTT business is due to its large-scale broadcasting content distribution network secured in Korea. In the KT 2020 results announcement conference call held on the 9th, Chief Financial Officer Kim Young-jin said, “KT is a business that has more than 12 million customers in IPTV and satellite broadcasting.” I said.
In order to strengthen content production competitiveness, KT is also planning to establish’KT Studio Genie’, an integrated subsidiary in the media sector in March this year. The new corporation plans to visualize source IP (intellectual property rights) through’StoryWiz’, a subsidiary specializing in web novels and webtoons, and perform original content production work together.
In addition, based on the data of 12 million subscribers, it applies a big data-based AI box office prediction model from the content production and investment stage, and focuses on expanding overseas distribution networks. The double patty, which will be released this time, is already being pre-sold in six Asian countries. In addition to movies, the mid-form drama’Summer Guys’ for the season will be released to more than 100 countries around the world through the KT season and Japan’s Abema on March 30.
Seasonal mid-form original drama’Summer Guys’ scheduled to be released in March (Photo = KT)
Furthermore, the live media platform function based on the season’s interactive service will also be greatly enhanced. Currently, KT is preparing a customized commerce service based on home shopping and big data within the season. It is expected that real-time communication between users and MDs during broadcasting will be possible, and purchases of food and clothing appearing in the contents will be connected through the AI person search function.
Hyun-joong Yoo, managing director of KT Labs’ mobile media business, said, “In the coming season, we will actively develop and invest in original mid-form content.
On the other hand, the season’s original movie’Double Patty’, which is scheduled to be released on the 17th, has lost his mental support and lost his mental support and lost his spirit to wrestling promising’Woo Ram (played by Shin Seung-ho)’ and aspiring announcer’Hyunji (Bae Joo-hyun)’ to regain hope and goals in a small relationship. It is a film about the story of growing together.
Director Baek introduced, “The story started with the desire to hand over a bowl of warm rice to many hungry young people,” and “I chose the name Double Patty to convey the message to them,’Isn’t one enough?’”.