Producer to Air Simultaneously on Line TV App in Taiwan

It’s been five months now since China’s SARFT crackdown on the simultaneously airing of overseas dramas on Chinese video portals, placing the same onerous restrictions as overseas shows aired on television. It’s overstating the impact this has had on K-dramas since China was far and away the largest market, with the advent of officially licensed live-streamed K-dramas starting in 2013 getting kiboshed by the heavy hand of SARFT. I was waiting to see if KBS would try to do something around upcoming K-drama Producer since it was so high profile with the star power and the expectation.

This week KBS pulled back the curtains on Producer licensing and revealed the drama will be streamed live on Line TV in Taiwan. That might actually skirt the SARFT restrictions which only covers Mainland China, but then again, I don’t know if the great firewall of China prevents the download of the Line TV app. Producer has apparently set new records for overseas sales thanks to the Hallyu power of Kim Soo Hyun. Producer got a one week premiere delay so will meet the audience on May 15th. Check out the super cute couples posters of the main cast where everyone switches partners.


Comments

Producer to Air Simultaneously on Line TV App in Taiwan — 16 Comments

  1. KSH can sell anything nowadays.. But Why is SARFT ruining the backyard of Hallyu.. China means alot for the K-ent because they are the real target with these dramas since they have the audience and numbers.

    But I seriously hope that SARFT will let LMH’s drama thru when it comes along and they might actully just do that for him since his almost considered Chinese nowadays he has intermingled with them real well?

    • Why would SARFT care about K-ent and Hallyu? Its priority is its own Chinese market and Chinese dramas etc, not how much Hallyu can expand into China.

      • I agree maybe SARFT wants to shoot all hallyu out which they did successful now.. Because if you shout down the big internet portals then kdramas lose there impect on the casual fans which are the true target whenever it gets to china but the hardcores will still stream it illegally but they are not targetted with the content so it won’t do SARFT’s agents any problems at the end of the day. IMHO is a huge blow for the hallyu content losing such a huge market like mainland china

      • Exactly. Korea should focus on improving its product, not just looking for profits and dumping out mediocre products. No more excuse for lower rated dramas, being made for the Chinese market *roll eyes* as if the Chinese do not like good stories, or good acting.

  2. Whatever SARFT does will not slow down Chinese subs for Korean dramas (still faster than Viki subs) because even without licensed streaming sites, they’re just going back to basic, before these licensed streaming sites popping out of scene – downloading through subbing team forums. It’s actually these subbing teams that made Korean dramas popular because they’re readily available everywhere in the first place.

    SARFT ban does not have any effect on Chinese drama lovers, but it’ll probably cost K-ent companies heaps of money since licensed streaming sites won’t be buying their contents at a high price (as they’re already subbed everywhere by the time SARFT allows them to be uploaded on Chinese licensed streaming sites).

    • BTW, even without China’s great firewall, Line TV app is already blocked in several countries (I think only Taiwan, Korea and several other countries can access that app). Chinese subs for Producer will probably be out in 5-6 hours after the broadcast in Korea (regular schedule for Chinese subbing teams) so with or without Line TV app, it doesn’t matter much to the Chinese.

    • That’s only partially correct. C-subs have always been available and will always be available to download, but that only affects those who are sophisticated and diehard drama fans. Most drama viewers are casual viewers, a lot still watch only what is on TV, and those who watch online do so via major streaming sites and what is available. They don’t have the ability to download, video and sub and sync, etc. Even if the subs are available, the Chinese video portals have also cracked down on unlicensed episodes of K-dramas and pull the videos soon after its uploaded, making it hard for the casual viewer to watch or pull in new viewers since there is no official page foe the drama with available videos neatly compiled, like before when there was official license of K-dramas by the online video portals.

      So in essence, SARFT restrictions have impacted the viewing of K-dramas in China. Even worse is that it’s impacting Korean networks ability to make money off Chinese viewers since it can’t sell dramas for live-airing anymore. That’s what this article was really about, that KBS managed to sell the rights to Line TV for live-airing, even if the region is smaller than China and even if the Chinese audiences (limited ones) can still download and find their own subs and don’t have or need Line TV. Korean networks can’t go long with this bottleneck on the licensing revenue from their K-dramas.

      • “Even if the subs are available, the Chinese video portals have also cracked down on unlicensed episodes of K-dramas and pull the videos soon after its uploaded”

        This is so true. KMHM got pulled everywhere. The Chinese viewers were playing quite a cat-and-mouse game with whoever bought the license but could not put KMHM in their site yet.

  3. Taiwan is such a small market though, so I highly doubt it’s anywhere enough to make up for the lost profit. I really don’t understand why it’s so hard to just not do the live shoots anymore. The TV stations could have just planned a couple of months in advance for the prime time dramas.

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