Korea's main broadcasters look to attract viewers with plenty of holiday specials

The Lunar New Year holiday season will be filled with new movies being broadcast on the three largest public broadcasting channels in Korea, KBS, MBC and SBS, all scrambling to capture viewers' attention over the holidays.

A scene from ″The Outlaw″ [MEGABOX]

The Lunar New Year holiday season will be filled with new movies being broadcast on the three largest public broadcasting channels in Korea, KBS, MBC and SBS, all scrambling to capture viewers' attention over the holidays.

A carefully selected range of new and old works during the holidays — spanning the four days from Saturday to Tuesday — will be broadcast on the three channels in an attempt to compete against streaming services such as Netflix, Watcha, Wavve, Tving and Disney+.

KBS has released its plans for a special Lunar New Year’s feature, documentaries and a string of movies. The holiday feature is a special on the legendary Korean band Songolmae, which will be broadcast at 9:20 p.m. Saturday on KBS 2TV.

The KBS special documentary is “Green Planet 5,” narrated by actor Son Ho-jun, filmed with state-of-the-art equipment, which talks about which plants thrive in different natural environments.

Films “Collectors” (2020), “By Quantum Physics: A Nightlife Venture” (2019), “Hot Blooded” (2022) and “Ditto” (2022) will be broadcast on KBS channels over the holidays.

Main posters for movies in KBS's lineup of Lunar New Year's holiday specials. [KBS]

For MBC, the Lunar New Year special pilot reality show “Miss Wife” (translated) will be released over two parts on Monday and Tuesday. The talk show is about women who have always only been referred to as someone’s wife since getting married, but who want to protect their own identities and empathize with other married women.

“Special Cargo” (2022) and “Life Is Beautiful” (2022), both hit movies released last year in Korea, will be re-run on MBC during the holidays. Popular MBC reality television programs such as “I Live Alone” (2013-2023) and “Hangout with Yoo” (2019-2023) will also air reruns and special segments for the holiday.

SBS will air a collection of movies from the past couple of years, including “Tomb of the River” (2021), “The Outlaws” (2017), “Kingmaker” (2022) and “Perhaps Love” (2021).

BY LIM JEONG-WON [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]