Dramafever Shuts Down Abruptly After 9 Years of Mainstreaming K-drama Watching

For the last few years I’ve felt an end of an era is coming premonition, as domestic ratings for K-dramas kept on falling 6 years straight and the original K-drama fanatics during the early Hallyu era all dissipated as excitement seemed to slack. But the international viewers seemingly grew as K-dramas mainstreamed due to the official licensing at streaming sites starting with the progenitor Dramafever and its fan cousin Viki. Later on the broader platforms Hulu and Netflix also added K-dramas to its catalog and it seemed the world outside of Asian countries started watching addicting K-dramas.

Sadly a slice of that pie got smaller today with the abrupt and complete shutdown of OG K-drama streaming site Dramafever, which was launched in 2009, sold to Softbank, and then sold to Warner Bros. WB announced the shutdown immediately along with plans to integrate all its catalog of streaming shows into a new HBO-anchored streaming site, which probably means K-dramas and other dramas carried by Dramafever will end up there. I’m still sad that the OG DF site is gone just like that, and with it a slice of history I lived through alongside. Current subscribers of DF will get a refund on their subscription but not a patch for the wistfulness of longing for an era that has passed. Continue reading