OTT-Fueled Cross-Industry Convergence: "The Hybrid Phenomenon Will Accelerate Further"

First Original Work Scheduled for Broadcast in the Second Half of the Year
Lineup Revealed for October-November

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] "The hybrid phenomenon where CJ ENM operates its own channel Tving and KT directly produces content will accelerate even more."

Kim Cheol-yeon, co-CEO of KT Studio Genie, said to reporters on the 11th at KT Studio Genie's new office in Seocho-dong, Seoul, "The spark was ignited by online video services (OTT), which are in a non-regulated area, contributing to the blurring of boundaries."

KT Studio Genie, which settled near Gangnam Station in mid-last month, is the control tower overseeing KT Group's media content division. Through Stowiz, a company specializing in web novels and webtoons, it discovers original intellectual property (IP) and collaborates with small and medium production companies in an open ecosystem manner to produce content. It also distributes content directly through various platforms such as broadcast channels (SkyTV), IPTV (Olleh TV, Skylife), and OTT (Season).

The company's first self-produced work is the mystery psychological drama "Crime Puzzle," starring Yoon Kye-sang and Go Ah-sung, produced in collaboration with Shinsegae Group's Mindmark and Studio 329. It is scheduled to air in the second half of the year, with other content lineups expected to be revealed in October to November. To this end, three Executive Producer (EP) teams were established. They are given more responsibility and production capability than Chief Producers (CP), taking final responsibility like American studios. Dramas based on IP discovered by Stowiz, such as "Shh, Please Take Care of That Guy," "Clone Human," and "Ghost Mansion," are also about to air.

I recently met with KT Studio's co-CEOs Yoon Yong-pil and Kim Cheol-yeon, who ushered in the era of the Seocho headquarters, at the main office building on the 11th. The photo shows co-CEOs Yoon Yong-pil and Kim Cheol-yeon from right to left. Photo by KT Studio Genie

Co-CEO Kim said, "The biggest effort in the past two months since the company's establishment was recruiting excellent talent," adding, "We brought in producers who have planned and developed dramas for over 10 years at places like Sony Pictures and producers who have challenged new media as EPs, each with various strengths." Even during lunch, if an interesting idea comes up, they have 'no-strings-attached' discussions. They have also broken down genre barriers.

Amid increasing content cost burdens, KT plans to present works with its own unique characteristics. The recent dispute over content usage fees between the content industry represented by CJ ENM and the three IPTV companies reflects the industry's landscape. Co-CEO Yoon Yong-pil emphasized, "Just because production costs are high doesn't mean it's a tentpole (a key work supporting cash flow for the year)," and added, "We want to present works that can compete with worldview and story." They plan to showcase 'KT-style content' through various experiments, from remakes to sharing original IP.