Online video service company WAVVE has joined hands with global media company NBC Universal(NBCU).
Content Wave (CEO Lee Tae-hyun), a joint venture between SK Telecom (CEO Park Jung-ho) and three Korean broadcasters (KBS · MBC · SBS), announced on April 12 that it has signed a partnership with NBCU to expand the global content ecosystem and export the Wave's original content.
NBCU, a 100 percent subsidiary of global media and entertainment company Comcast, produces TV dramas, movies, sports content and news and provides it to viewers around the world. Its business sales amounted to about 34 billion U.S. dollars in 2019.
NBCU has produced TV series "The Office," films "Shrek" and "Minions," which are also familiar to Korea, distributed "Fast and Furious" series and is also operating theme park "Universal Studio" in the United States, Japan and Singapore.
The formation of a global media cooperative was made in line with the interests of SK Telecom and Wave, which want to expand the Korean Wave content ecosystem, and NBCU, which wants to preemptively secure Korean Wave content, which has recently been rapidly growing in popularity in North America and Europe.
Under the partnership, Wave will supply up to five works annually to NBCU over the next three years with original content produced with three Korean broadcasters (KBS, MBC, and SBS). Wave recommends a number of dramas and movies, and NBCU chooses distribution works in consideration of the preferences of major regions.
NBCU, in particular, is planning to launch its OTT service Peacock across the U.S. as early as this month. Wave's Korean Wave dramas and others can be provided as key content for the service. SK Telecom and Wave will also seek to invest and produce joint contents with NBCU.
Wave also decided to invest a total of 60 billion won this year to produce original content and reflect trends around the world, considering content exports through NBCU.
Following the success of KBS' first original content "The Tale of Nokdu" last year, eight Korean film directors, including director Min Kyu-dong, are currently investing and producing the science fiction film "SF8" with MBC.
"This cooperation has paved the way for Wave to grow beyond Korea's best to become a global leading OTT," said Yoo Young-sang, head of SK Telecom's MNO business division, "We will form a global media cooperative through SK Telecom's 10 million media customers and the competitiveness of Korean Wave content."
