New year and the first K-drama controversy of 2024 is here. It centers around the female empowerment period drama Jeong Nyeon with Kim Tae Ri as the lead and a strong supporting cast of actresses Shin Ye Eun, Ra Mi Ran, and Moon So Ri. The PD directed The Red Sleeve Cuff which was a critical and ratings hit for MBC so the network worked closely with the production of this drama since the onset and even invested money in the pre-production. But in the end the production sold the drama broadcast rights to tvN rather than the expected airing on MBC. Reportedly MBC will take legal action against tvN for stealing this away but I don’t see that happening as honestly this occurrence is likely common as networks jostle for dramas and maybe this one is getting news because it’s so high profile and Kim Tae Ri is a near sure fire winner in any drama she picks.
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Omo I didn’t even know this was a thing. Like networks could just poach a drama off another network?
Poor public channels, between the big streaming platforms who can pay very expensive actors and the private channels who steal their dramas, it becomes difficult for them. They already reduce the number of dramas they released. It’s sad because they still have good dramas when the big productions focused on action and violence instead of characters writting…
Well, actually it sounds like MBC was hedging their bets and lost.
If they wanted broadcast rights from the get-go, they would have made a contract/paid for the drama from the start. That happens so times. In this case, they went minimal risk by making an investment (which they will still get paid for!!) but not locking in broadcast rights. Probably hoping that would buy them goodwill if they they wanted to bid on the drama once it was in production and they were 100% they wanted it.
But it backfired and when they wanted the drama, some one else outbid them. 🤷🏼♀️
that’s daylight robbery. But maybe they don’t want the same thing to happen like the staff issue that happened in My Dearest.
aren’t there any contracts signed anywhere between MBC and the production company for the investment? I mean, if there weren’t, then it’s fair game, but if there were, this is poor form indeed from the production company
The original webtoon has WLW themes and there was speculation online that MBC wanted to sanitise/censor them because it’s a conservative public broadcaster. The production companies apparently didn’t want this to happen and struck a deal with TVN instead.