Global Leading OTT Gathered in One Place... 'International OTT Forum' Held

The Korea Communications Commission announced on the 16th that it held the ‘2023 International OTT Forum’ at the Ambassador Seoul Pullman Hotel in Jangchung-dong.

In its second year, this forum featured participation not only from domestic online video service (OTT) providers Tving and Wavve, but also global companies such as Netflix, Viu (Hong Kong), DAZN (UK), Canal+ (France), and U-NEXT (Japan).

2023 International OTT Forum Poster
Photo by Korea Communications Commission

Comprising a total of six sessions including keynote speeches and special sessions, this event was organized under the theme ‘Streaming Beyond Imagination’ to support the successful overseas market entry of domestic OTT providers and the establishment of global networks. It aimed to share success strategies of top-tier global OTT companies and to assess the current status of the increasingly competitive global OTT industry each year, seeking cooperation between OTT providers and content producers.

Kang Dong-han, the head of Netflix Korea, the world’s leading global OTT, delivered a keynote speech on cooperation strategies in the global OTT market. Janice Lee, CEO of Hong Kong’s Viu, which has established itself as the largest OTT in Southeast Asia, presented on the current status and development plans of the Asian OTT market. Choi Joo-hee, CEO of Tving, Korea’s top native OTT, gave a keynote lecture on the future of online streaming and content.

In a special session, John Gleeser, Vice Chairman of DAZN, a global sports content-specialized OTT covering FIFA, F1, and more, spoke about the competitiveness of sports content, which has emerged as a new growth engine for OTT. DAZN showed a remarkable growth trend last year by achieving sales of 3.059 trillion KRW.

Following this, in Session 1, Vivek Kuto, CEO of global research firm MPA, forecasted the growth potential of the OTT market. In Session 2, Tenshin Tsutsumi, CEO of U-NEXT, the only Japanese domestic company recording profits, presented on the current status and success strategies of the Japanese OTT market.

In Session 3, Choi Byung-wook, Senior Vice President of Canal+*, a leading French media group operating in 31 countries including Europe and Africa, shared overseas expansion cases. In the subsequent Session 4, Kim Ki-joo, Head of Korea Research, analyzed media usage behaviors by country abroad.

In Session 5, Park Geun-hee, CEO of KOCOWA, the only domestic OTT to have recorded profits after overseas expansion, presented successful overseas expansion strategies for K-OTT. A discussion on ‘Development Plans for the Korean OTT Industry’ followed. After listening to a presentation by Professor Seong Dong-gyu of Chung-Ang University, the discussion was moderated by Moon Cheol-soo, Chairman of the Korea OTT Forum, with panelists including Park Jong-hwan, Manager of Tving, Noh Dong-hwan, Leader of Wavve, Professor Lee Sung-min of Korea National Open University, and PD Jang Ho-gi, producer of Netflix’s ‘Physical: 100’.

In his opening remarks, Vice Chairman Lee Sang-in said, “In this time of rapid change in the media industry environment, when national and platform boundaries are broken down and everyone works together, the OTT industry will continue to develop.” He added, “Through today’s event, I hope domestic OTT companies will ride the wave of K-content to expand into overseas markets and advance Korea as a global media powerhouse.”