Executives from CJ ENM, Korea’s largest media and leisure conglomerate, Friday devoted to investing upwards of KRW1 billion ($750 million) per yr in content material materials.

“We proceed to imagine in Ok-content,” said group CEO Yoon Sang-hyun at an event hosted on the sidelines of the Busan Worldwide Movie Pageant. “By retaining our funding in content material at KRW1 billion, and utilizing our perception accrued via international studios, theaters and OTT platforms , CJ ENM will dedicate itself to enhancing the movie business figures.”

Yoon and completely different executives from the group tried to sound optimistic regarding the long-term approach ahead for the enterprise, whereas acknowledging excessive near time interval headwinds.

Yoon acknowledged the challenges as along with ongoing weak level of theatrical subject office in Korea (and elsewhere), modifications contained in the streaming sector, an viewers shift within the route of consumption of fast sort video and potential disruption from artificial intelligence.

“We’re already making the most important content material funding of any firm in Korea and we’re dedicated to rising it additional,” said Yoon.

He didn’t break down the decide between sectors, nor differentiate between content material materials for exploitation by the group or TV reveals made by its monumental TV manufacturing facility Studio Dragon for customers. And enterprise sources report that CJ ENM’s funding in attribute motion pictures is now significantly lower than just some years prior to now.

However absolutely the numbers couldn’t matter as Yoon and the others all sought to emphasize wider use of content material materials and multi-functional exploitation all through the group’s completely completely different distribution retailers. “We’ve seen that some movie that dissatisfied in theaters can do extraordinarily nicely on OTT,” said Cho Jin-ho, head of house enterprise division at exhibition arm CJ-CGV.

Headwinds are quite a few. Search engine optimisation Jang-ho, head of content material materials enterprise said: “Manufacturing prices have doubled because the pre-COVID period. All TV channels are dealing with declines in promoting income, making it tougher to fee new exhibits. And the shortfall is just not being compensated by abroad gross sales.”

Lee Dong hyun, enterprise innovation authorities at CGV said: “In movie, we are actually solely at 60% of peak enterprise. Restoration may be very gradual. There have been hit movies, however the efficiency of mid-tier movies has drastically declined. That offers us actual concern for subsequent yr and the long run.”

Choi Ju-hui, head of Tving, the streaming platform via which CJ ENM is the lead investor, said that the platform had caught up with Netflix throughout the Korean market. “We’re solely taking a look at a 5% subscriber progress outlook in the meanwhile. We have to have a look at increasing subscribers and revenues and to align with new shoppers’ wants, resembling including dwell baseball (KBO).”

Jang Kyung-ik who recently took the reins at Studio Dragon said, “After I joined I saved listening to the phrase ‘disaster.’ It’s true that we now have gone from producing 120 lengthy kind exhibits in 2022 to 105 final yr and 96 this yr. However I feel we are actually stabilizing at round 100 per yr.”

The audio system gave quite a few examples of content material materials utilization innovation and cross-platform exploitation. TV current, “Boost our Love” was given in one other approach rated variations on linear TV and R-rated Tving streaming. One different current, “A Bloody Fortunate Day” observed some episodes premiere in CGV theaters just a few days sooner than airing on TV.

“After ten years of steady progress within the movie enterprise, we are actually in a unique surroundings, stated Jerry Ko, head of movie on the group. “We’re studying to focus and goal our investments and intention to have our movies go international.”

Headline film and TV titles for 2025 embody: Park Chan-wook’s now in manufacturing attribute “No Different Selection”; “Bugonia,” the Yorgos Lanthimos remake of 2003 CJ film “Save the Blue Planet”; and a sequence adaptation of the film “Fabricated Metropolis.”