Ganoush

Hallyu is important for the South Korean government as a way of exerting soft power. But TV ratings are simply the lifeline of kdramas. I can give you a comparison. The World of The Married did c.28-29% for its last broadcast and has been hovering around 20-25%. That is in absolute numbers around 5-6 million viewers. However, the re-runs are also watched by c.3-4% each time, that is approximately 750,000 viewers per episode. So per episode they are doing c.8-10 million viewers. TKEM has at peak 1.3 million viewers and mostly falls below that. Over a stretch of 16 episodes (assuming the trend continues), TWOTM has c. 125 million TV viewers, whilst TKEM at most has c. 25 million TV viewers. From an advertising point of perspective, there is simply no way that the difference of 100 million viewers can be compensated with commercial-free (low-value) Netflix watchers. This debate can be compared to the debate of box office sales/physical CDs versus online streaming. Idols rather sell 10 million physical CDs than have 1 billion views on Youtube. That is why JYP (physical CD-heavy) is doing financially so much better than YG (who has a bigger online presence). And why Twice earns more than Blackpink , even though BP is more known in the West. Ideally, you want to have a double whammy like BTS. Or in Kdramaland... that would be something like Crash Landing On You and to a lesser extent Itaewon Class. But if you have to choose between one or the another, it is better to be big on TV than online.

Also, people need to realize that you need to look further than only the Netflix-trending lists. It is mostly doing well in the smaller markets. In the big markets such as Japan, they are fourth or lower. They are outpaced by CLOY and IC - both have already finished. It is not only underperforming in Korea, but to a lesser extent also in Japan.

The low ratings has caused a further downward spiral. SBS does not care about the quality anymore and only cares about recouping their money. This means blatantly putting PPL in the show. Why PPL? Because PPL is the only way to advertise on Netflix. The general income from less invasive advertising (aka CFs) has fallen because of low viewership. So big advertisers will not pay top-bucks for CFs during the breaks anymore.

What The King should have done, was to organize test screenings to see what the crowd likes and what not, but I guess that it would have been difficult to organize these events due to Covid-19.

It is not low ratings for only this drama. It is the whole pattern across the industry. TVN, for example, who is known for these fantasy and high budget series, had one of the worst 2019 ever. People assumed that TVN dropped the public channels a while ago, but suddenly in 2019 both KBS and SBS caught up in popularity. This was an unexpected result as KBS and SBS announced massive reductions in budgets and culling of timeslots, after a disastrous 2018. As a result of this, the public channels in 2019-2020 mostly produced TV shows that were slice-of-life, real, had no CGI (because they are cheaper to produce) and had veteran actors (i.e. almost no idols). And they were massively popular such as The Fiery Priest, When Camellia Blooms, Hyena, Dr Prisoner, Stove League etc. JTBC, TVN's major cable rival, also caught up with the same recipe such as Sky Castle and TWOTM (British adaptation, but suits Korean taste). It literally makes no financial sense for these channels to continue dabbling into fantasy or CGI-heavy series, as they do not guarantee viewership. By the way, melodramas are also doing awful, so I predict that we will see less of them as well.

Netflix' motive, on the other hand, is primarily to come up with new content to entice subscribers to continue using the platform. They branched out to Korea, because the average production cost per episode of well-known US dramas is c. $3.5 million, whilst Arthdal, the most expensive Korean drama ever, cost c. $2.5 million per episode. They want series that will have multiple seasons, do universal well and have a bit of cultural authenticity (but not too much, as they need to be internationally comprehensible), but that is exactly the opposite of what Korean viewers want.

I do not think that the guy is megalomaniac. He makes a valid point, because in the past year, big production projects mostly failed: Arthdal Chronicles, Vagabond and now also TKEM. Sure, they were popular on Netflix, but SBS and TVN hardly reaped the benefits from it. Shin Sung Rok said in a press conference that he hoped for a 30% rating for Vagabond. It came nowhere near that number.

In the future, the financing for those high budget dramas will mostly come from Netflix and less so from the traditional TV channels, because the international crowd (Latin America, SEA, Africa) are mostly interested in these high budget dramas. But if Netflix is the major financier, they want to have exclusive rights, because a simulcast on traditional TV channels eats in on Netflix' streaming views. What will happen is that Netflix will continue to produce the high budget series, whilst the traditional TV channels will focus on cheaper projects with a typical Korean plot. Or we might see high-budget series with multiple short seasons (the Kingdom and Arthdal format).

From a commercial point of view, it is not a bad development. But from a sentimental point of view it is kinda sad. Netflix caters to the international crowds, so the typical "Koreanness" from the drama will be removed and replaced with plots that fit a more Western mold. Just take a step back and think about AC, Vagabond and TKEM. What do they have in common? They are very American-like. Were it not for the Korean language and the actors, it could have been produced by ABC, NBC or Fox.

So in the future, we will just see dramas written by e.g. Hollywood, but performed by popular Korean/Asian actors (a bit like the movie "Crazy Rich Asians" or "Giri/Haji"). Which is a pity, because it also means that the international crowd will never get to know the uniqueness of the Korean entertainment industry (such as makjangs) nor get to know typical Korean actors such as Kim Hee Ae or Ji Sung. These actors do not have the acting style to perform in big budget productions, unlike some idols or stars such as Park Seo Joon, Kim Soo Hyun, Hyun Bin and Lee Min Ho.