Local OTTs turn to reality shows to compete in streaming war
From left are the posters for Wavve's reality show, “Merry Queer,” Tving's “High School Mystery Club,” and Coupang Play's “Workplace Romance.” Courtesy of Wavve, Tving, Coupang Play
By Lee Gyu-lee
Local over-the-top (OTT) platforms are putting more emphasis on reality shows for their original content, seeking to acquire a comparative advantage in the heated competition among streaming services here.
Tving unveiled its lineup of upcoming original shows for next year, which included 12 new shows and six franchised sequels or spinoffs. Of those, there are 11 reality shows, ranging from music documentaries and food shows to popular producer Kim Tae-ho's new variety show.
“We intend to continue to expand our platform and its comparative advantage in 2023, based on Tving's strategy, which has made original shows successful,” the platform said in a statement, Monday.
The upcoming reality shows include a baking survival show, “The Desert,” produced by the production team of dating show “Single's Inferno.” A star-studded reality show starring actors Ha Jung-woo, Ju Ji-hoon, Choi Min-ho and Yeo Jin-goo is also set to roll out, following the group's backpacking road trip overseas.
“(Tving) is also scaling up on documentaries. 'K-pop Generation,' which will invite famous K-pop artists to walk through the history of K-pop from the perspectives of artists, media and fans, is also a highly anticipated Tving original show for 2023,” the platform said.
The upcoming lineup also includes the third season of Tving's hit originals, “High School Mystery Club” and “EXchange.”
Tving's lineup of upcoming original shows for next year / Courtesy of Tving
Wavve has been debuting diverse variety shows, from Korea's first LGBTQ romance show, “Merry Queer,” to survival game show “Button Game.”
It recently dropped a new dating show, “Love Alarm: Clap! Clap! Clap!” last week, adapted from the webtoon, “Love Alarm.”
The platform is also set to release a string of new original shows, including an investigative show created by “Unanswered Questions” producer Bae Jung-hun.
“We've had different attempts, based on the efficient allocation of this year's budget. Although the concepts of the reality shows (released this year) didn't target the general public and they had a little disappointing performance in terms of popularity, we have sufficiently appealed to our target audiences,” Wavve producer Yim Chang-hyuk said during a recent press conference.
“If this year was about experimenting with different content, next year, we will carefully evaluate and select each project and invest more budget in each,” Yim said.
He added that the platform will appeal to viewers with its original shows, which put spotlight less-discussed issues.
“Global OTTs have rolled out big-budget reality shows, which also target global audiences. Wavve puts the priority on making original shows that bring issues to the surface or have concepts that previous shows have not touched on. We intend to continue to steer in that direction and expand to include more concepts that everyone can empathize with,” he said.
Coupang Play hit a home run with the “Saturday Night Live Korea” reboot, as its first reality original show last year, kicking off its third season last month. Along with the comedy show, it recently introduced a new dating show, “Workplace Romance,” riding the wave of dating reality shows.
The reality show, which kicked off on Nov. 11, invites 11 men and women to a fictional fashion company to work while searching for romance in the group.