[Interview] "Sold Out 1 Year Supply of Corn at Once" LG HelloVision Paving New Paths in Local Variety Shows

Park Hyun-woo, Head of LG HelloVision Content Production Center
New Challenge from Star PD with 20 Years of Experience
Carefully Crafted YouTube... Created Clips with Over 1 Million Views

November 8th Paldo Food Contest 'War of Knives' Launch
Like Danggeun Market, Highlighting Regional Value
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Hyunwoo Park, Head of Content Production Center at LG HelloVision

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] LG HelloVision is breaking down the barriers of local channels and fully embarking on producing content with original intellectual property (IP).

On the 2nd, Park Hyun-woo, Head of LG HelloVision Content Production Center, held an interview with Asia Economy at LG HelloVision’s headquarters in Sangam-dong, stating, "Given that local channels have a total viewership of about 4 million, it is difficult to create programs that generate buzz surpassing those of public or terrestrial broadcasters, so we have been continuously contemplating this."

Park, a former ‘flagship PD’ at CJ ENM with 20 years of production experience, has joined forces with LG HelloVision’s strong commitment to content production, investing about 40 billion KRW annually from this year onward, and his desire to try entertainment on local channels. Since this is a previously unseen content strategy, they coined the new term ‘Localtainment,’ combining ‘local’ and ‘entertainment.’

A Quiet Sensation Led by New Releases

LG HelloVision introduced four new programs in the second half of the year alone. The program with the greatest impact across TV and new media was ‘Jang Yoon-jung’s Dojangkkaegi,’ which has been extended for eight additional episodes. It was also the main contributor to the newly renamed YouTube channel ‘HelloTV’ reaching 100,000 subscribers and individual video clips hitting 1 million views. Since the goal was to double the 50,000 subscribers by the end of the year, the pace exceeded internal expectations. During the same period, the core TV audience also increased by an average of 40% compared to the first half of the year.

A new food entertainment program created in collaboration with tvN Story is set to launch next week. ‘War of the Knife,’ airing on the 8th, features Korean cuisine battles among masters from all eight provinces of Korea, hosted by a trio of MCs including Lee Young-ja, known for her excellent taste expression, singer Lee Chan-won famous for ‘Jinttobaegi,’ and former announcer Do Kyung-wan. The program is produced by PD Hyun-don, who was responsible for all seasons of ‘Hansik Daecheop,’ and Park Hyun-woo personally worked hard to recruit talent. Additional PDs will be recruited according to programming plans.

Park explained, "The concept was to gather only the top chefs from the eight provinces nationwide for a cooking competition, a pride battle among the best in each region," adding, "The competition is between the Blue and White teams led by star MCs." The show highlights local specialties, delves into the origins of ingredient names, and closely examines the cooking methods of masters. Given the strong regional characteristics, viewers will also enjoy the charm of various provincial dialects.

"We Will Become a ‘Local Essential Channel’"

The original belief in creating a link between media and commerce remains unchanged. Park said with a smile, "‘Paldo Bapsang Plus’ is connected to the online platform Naver Shopping Live to sell local specialties, and once sold 30 million KRW worth of corn in just one hour." Selling 30 million KRW worth of corn is the scale that local farmers, who lack sales channels, have to work hard to sell throughout the year. Next year, they plan to expand the scale by linking with small and medium-sized enterprises and local businesses.

Recently, Park has been focusing on planning next year’s content strategy. While this year solidified LG HelloVision’s unique identity with two weekday time slots at 5 PM and 9 PM, next year they plan to significantly enhance content quality. He emphasized, "We will deliver fun and emotion like ‘Danggeun Market,’ which best embodies local value," adding, "We aim to become a ‘local essential channel’ so that when people want to visit a local area, they can watch our broadcast just like finding a local restaurant."