Government to Remaster K-Dramas like 'Eungdabhara' and 'Dokkaebi' in 4K

Support for Finalizing Domestic OTT Library Enhancement
Tving, Wavve, Watcha, U+M Improve Video and Audio Quality

The government will provide approximately 4 billion KRW to strengthen the distribution competitiveness of domestic OTT content.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Creative Content Agency will sign a business agreement on the 4th with Tving, Wavve, Watcha, U+ Mobile, and others to support the post-production enhancement of domestic OTT libraries. This project aims to increase the amount of content available so that consumers use domestic OTT services more, and to improve service quality such as video and audio. While enhancing the distribution competitiveness of domestic OTTs, it plans to secure a sustainable distribution network for Korean content in the long term.

Hyeri (playing Sung Deok-sun, left) and Ryu Jun-yeol (playing Kim Jung-hwan) who appeared in the tvN drama 'Reply 1988'.

The main support includes ▲ remastering production such as improving the video and audio quality of existing content ▲ metadata management to efficiently handle OTT content information and enhance consumer services ▲ production of subtitles for the hearing impaired to improve viewing welfare for people with disabilities.

The remastering targets include more than 300 popular masterpieces such as the "Reply" series, "Goblin," and "Signal." All will be uploaded in high definition (4K). More than 45 new works, including "Swoop" and "Mr. Sunshine," will provide subtitles for the hearing impaired. The metadata will introduce approximately 640,000 pieces of content. A Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism official stated, "We will provide the results of the support project to the original creators as well, to create a fair and mutually beneficial environment for the content ecosystem."

Separately, the Ministry will select excellent production companies to support post-production of broadcasting video content (25 billion KRW) and the production of audio-described broadcasts for the visually impaired (1 billion KRW). The former includes post-production encompassing special visual effects (VFX), computer graphics (CG), and multilingual production such as translation and dubbing. The plan is to enhance the competitiveness of Korean content distributed simultaneously worldwide and to continuously drive global popularity.

Jeon Byeong-geuk, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said, "This year, the budget for supporting broadcasting video content, including OTT, has been expanded to 123.5 billion KRW, 2.5 times more than last year. We will spare no effort to expand the distribution of domestic K-content and support the domestic OTT industry to advance globally."