Korea to up spending on television and broadcasting support

The government will spend 123.5 billion won ($98.5 million) to grow the local television and broadcasting industry this year, up 168 percent from last year, in hopes of following on the successes of dramas like "Extraordinary Attorney ...

A scene from JTBC drama series ″Reborn Rich″ that wrapped up last December with a 26.9 percent viewership rating [JTBC]

The government will spend 123.5 billion won ($98.5 million) to grow the local television and broadcasting industry this year, up 168 percent from last year, in hopes of following on the successes of dramas like "Extraordinary Attorney Woo" and "Reborn Rich."

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said Sunday that the funding will go to nurturing the local television market by funding local producers and building new shooting facilities, with an emphasis on content aimed at streaming services.

Of the total, 45.4 billion won will go to funding works made primarily for streaming services, otherwise known as over-the-top (OTT) platforms, which has been increased by 291 percent compared to the 11.6 billion won spent in 2022.

Producers seeking to apply for the OTT support program have to distribute their works to local streaming services before going on overseas services and jointly own the intellectual property (IP) rights of the work with the local streaming company.

Some 40 billion won will go to funding post-production projects, which refer to the edits that happen after shooting on set, such as visual effects, computer graphics, subtitles and adding other features for people with visual or hearing impairment. An additional 10 billion won will be used for helping small-and-medium sized production companies release their work overseas.

The culture ministry will use 7.9 billion won to build a shooting set within Studio Cube, a production company located in Daejeon, that will allow for underwater scenes. And 1.9 billion won will go to training programs for professionals in the television and broadcasting field.

“The ‘Reborn Rich’ series was created as a part of the ministry’s support program, which hit a high of 26.9 percent viewership rating and became the most successful drama of 2022,” the ministry said in a press release.

“The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism will keep up with such support programs so that televised and broadcasted content becomes a game-changer for our content industry.”

BY YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]