tvN unveils 10-year global expansion strategy

Lee Deok-jae, president of Media Content Business at CJ E&M, speaks during a press conference at Stanford Hotel in Mapo, western Seoul, Tuesday. / Courtesy of CJ E&M

By Kim Jae-heun

CJ E&M’s cable network tvN unveiled its 10-year strategy aiming to expand its global influence on the occasion of its 10th anniversary.

“It has been four years since we developed content for the global market and formed a business group,” said Lee Deok-jae, president of CJ E&M’s Media Content Business, during a press conference at Stanford Hotel in Mapo, western Seoul.

“We have already established the global center within our company and it aims to distribute our reality TV shows like The Genius worldwide. Better Late than Never, the American remake of Grandpas Over Flowers, attracted many viewers with its pilot program among its competitors aired at the same time and NBC has decided to renew it for season two. It is a very meaningful achievement and the media of other countries are paying close attention to it.”

“The Genius” is tvN’s hit reality show premiered on April 2013 collecting 13 participants from different fields to compete for the top spot in rounds involving various games. It successfully spawned three more seasons in 2014 and 2015.

“Grandpas Over Flowers” is a travel series featuring four veterans actors in their 70s going on a backpacking tour with an actor in his 40s.

Lee said tvN is consistently studying the market and trend not only in America but also in Southeast Asia and Europe at its bureau in Hong Kong. The company is working with local media experts and producing contents according to the audience’s taste of entertainment and culture in different regions. Lee confirmed that tvN will make different television shows for domestic and international markets in the near future.

One of the upcoming global projects it is preparing to premier in the nearest future is a TV series called “The Society Game.” It is a mock society game show starring 22 participants to compete for 100 million won of winner’s price. The challenge will last 14 days in a controlled village environment and contestants will join a team, be it a one-man team “society” or a group of many with one leader controlling the team. The show tries to find an answer to the question of what a good leader is and how he can change society. The TV show is tvN’s collaboration project with globally popular media company Endemol Shine Group known for its TV shows “Big Brother” and “MasterChef.”

Since its launch in 2006, tvN grew tremendously both in its size as a fresh content creator and influencer in the market. The media sought maniac audience groups, especially those in teenage and 20s, using its advantages as a flexible cable TV channel. Its early TV series “Fun TV: Roller Coaster” aired from 2009 to 2013, studied the psychology and its influence in the behaviors of Korean men and Korean women in everyday life _ earned big popularity and shot the cable channel to fame. The cable show grasped the chance to enhance its influence in drama series sector by producing “Reply” series that successfully touched the people’s nostalgia for the 1980s and 1990s. In the last 10 years, tvN’s monthly profit grew by 30 percents and its investment in content creating has jumped from 50 billion won ($4.54 million) in its first year to 150 billion won ($136.2 million) this year.

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