Leading Korean entertainment and media company CJ ENM announced its streaming platform Tving has attracted $209m to be invested in original content and IT competitiveness.
The company behind international successes such as Oscar-winning film Parasite and drama series Crash Landing On You stated it is aiming to make TVing the “global no. 1 K-contents platform”, spurred on by the new investment.
It will accelerate plans to produce more than 100 works of original content, reach more than 8 million subscribers and launch direct services in territories including Japan, Taiwan and the US – all by 2023.
“This investment is an acknowledgement of Tving’s high growth potential and the competitiveness of its differentiated original content,” said CJ ENM in a statement. ”We will hurry to launch it as a global platform by strengthening partnerships with foreign and domestic content companies and aggressive investment expansion.”
CJ ENM reported that the OTT platform’s subscriptions had increased threefold since last year to reach more than 2 million paid subscribers.
Tving is set to sell 382,513 new shares to South Korean financial institution JC Growth Investment to raise $209m (KW250bn), CJ ENM said today (February 18).
This is the latest in a series of moves CJ ENM has made to realise its global ambitions – including acquiring a controlling stake in US production company Endeavor Content and securing a $7m investment from Paramount in Tving as part of a global strategic partnership with the company.
Also as part of that partnership, Korean director Lee Joon-ik – whose credits include local box office hit King And The Clown – is set to direct his first drama series, Beyond The Memory (aka Yonder), as a Tving original. It will be presented by the Korean streamer and Paramount, produced by Doodoong Pictures and CJ ENM.
Paramount+ is also due to premiere in Korea on the Tving platform in the first half of this year.
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