KT, CJ ENM to Merge Streaming Services

KT and CJ ENM in South Korea have reached an agreement to combine their respective streaming services, Seezn and Tving.

KT StudioGenie, a division of the telecoms giant, will become the third-largest shareholder in Tving. This is the third collaboration between KT and CJ ENM; CJ previously invested 100 billion won ($76 million) in KT StudioGenie, and the two companies partnered on combining Tving with KT’s wireless offers.

Tving will take over Seezn’s operations as CJ ENM and KT look to consolidate their position in the Korean streaming landscape.

Growth has slowed in Korea’s SVOD market: per data from Media Partners Asia (MPA), the country added just 600,000 new SVOD subscriptions in the first quarter to reach 14.7 million customers, down from the 1.7 million added in Q4 2021. Netflix, Wavve, Tving, Coupang Play and Disney+ accounted for 86 percent of that 14.7 million subs base and 83 percent of all premium video consumption. As of April of this year, Netflix remained out front as the leading OTT player in the market, followed by Wavve in second place and Tving in third.