Tving Peaks with 'Autumn Baseball'... Is It Okay to Spend Winter 'Without KBO'?

Steady Growth This Year... 8.09 Million MAU in October
Other OTTs Like Netflix Do Not Show Continuous Growth
However, No Winter KBO Games... Key to Prevent Churn

At the beginning of this year, the online video service (OTT) TVING, which secured exclusive online broadcasting rights for the KBO League, recorded its highest monthly active users (MAU) this year.

According to Mobile Index on the 5th, TVING's MAU for October reached 8,096,100, marking the highest point this year.

The increase in TVING's monthly users was driven by professional baseball. Since securing exclusive online broadcasting rights for the KBO League, TVING's MAU has steadily increased without decline from January (6,563,522 users). In particular, in October, the KBO postseason, also known as fall baseball, which attracts high interest from baseball fans, boosted the MAU. The weekly active users (WAU) for the 3rd and 4th weeks of October recorded around 4.9 million, an increase of about 400,000 compared to the 2nd week (4,579,304 users).

Netflix, the undisputed number one, also saw an increase in MAU last month with 11,909,839 users compared to the previous month (11,667,082), but it did not reach its peak. Netflix's highest record this year was 12,819,483 users in January, which dropped to 10,960,389 in July. Other OTTs such as Disney Plus, Wavve, Coupang Play, and Watcha have not shown growth.

However, since the KBO League effect is widely regarded as having a significant impact on subscriber inflow, attention is focused on whether TVING can prevent subscriber churn during the winter season when there are no KBO games. TVING subscriber Kim (28, female) said, "I subscribed to TVING's ad-supported plan because of the KBO League," adding, "There is no content to watch on TVING except baseball, so I am considering canceling my subscription now that the season is over." Lee (36, male), who watches TVING on the standard plan, said, "My family members subscribed and watch it, but I only log in when there is baseball, so I probably won't use it for a while."

Since the 1st of this month, TVING has been running the ‘TVING Festa 2024’ promotion, offering up to a 45% discount on annual subscriptions for new annual subscription members.