One Year in the Untact Era, U+ IdolLive Viewing Time Grows 25% Monthly
Viewers Increase About 10% Monthly... 30,000 Self-Produced Contents Prove Effective
[Asia Economy Reporter Eunmo Koo] As the COVID-19 pandemic prolonged the ‘stay-at-home’ lifestyle, the usage rate of ‘untact content’ among the 10s and 20s generation has significantly increased.
LG Uplus announced on the 4th that the cumulative viewing time of the idol content platform ‘U+IdolLive’ has surpassed 40 million minutes. This is equivalent to the time of 50,000 episodes of a 16-episode drama series.
The usage rate of U+IdolLive began to increase sharply since last year when non-face-to-face interactions became normalized. The cumulative viewing time grew by 25% each month last year, more than tripling compared to the 7% average monthly growth rate in 2019.
An LG Uplus official explained, “Although most idol content consists of short running times under 15 minutes, the reason viewing time continues to increase is due to the spread of so-called ‘binge-watching’ behavior, where users consume multiple pieces of content at once.”
The number of content viewers (UV) also steadily increased during the same period. LG Uplus attributes this to the effectiveness of its own production of nearly 30,000 pieces of content. In particular, last year, the number of viewers increased by nearly 10% each month, and the number of ‘hearts’?comments or expressions of liking for self-produced content?also rose sharply compared to the previous year.
The recently aired pet adoption encouragement variety show ‘Idol Blind Date’ received about 3 million hearts. This led to activities such as donating pet supplies to the animal protection organization ‘KARA’ under the name of the idol group ‘Golden Child,’ who appeared on the show.
Lee Jung-woo, head of LG Uplus Music Service Team, said, “The expansion of U+IdolLive users and viewers’ interest in the content are leading to donation activities by participants like Golden Child, creating a virtuous cycle that further increases viewership. We will continue to strive to provide diverse and engaging content centered on idols.”
U+IdolLive is available for free download from app markets such as Google Play Store, Apple App Store, and One Store regardless of the user’s telecom provider. U+tv customers using the ‘UHD2’ or ‘UHD3’ set-top boxes can enjoy the ‘U+tv IdolLive’ IPTV service to watch content bigger and more vividly on their TVs.
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