It’s been quite a while since Netflix has almost conquered the Korean entertainment market with it’s active acquisitions of Korean movies, documentaries and shows. It also helped them massively post the Parasite‘s Best Picture Oscar win followed by the phenomenon that Squid Game was worldwide. Netflix repeated it’s success in Korean limited series with Zombie thriller All of Us Are Dead, and now both shows are renewed for a second season.
Disney+ and AppleTV+ also joined the streamer in making more Korean Original content to tap in the massive Asian market with shows like Dr.Brain, Snowdrop etc.. Looks like Amazon Prime Video amidst of all these felt a little left out. Although the streamer acquired Bong Joon Ho’s Oscar winning movie ‘Parasite’ and some other hit K-dramas like ‘Taxi Driver’, little to no efforts were taken from it’s end when it came to acquiring, publicising and churning Korean originals. This could possibly be why Amazon Prime Video now is aiming to capitalize on the revamped Korean wave by adding Korean content streamer Kocowa to its lineup. The channel carries an additional subscription fee.
Kocowa is said to add thousands of successful K-dramas, K-pop, K-movies and library titles to Prime Video. This is a joint venture (wA) between the top three Korean broadcasters KBS, MBC, and SBS alongside SK Telecom. The channel is said to be debuting on Prime Video today whose service will also churn new content from Korean entertainment realm in the form of K-dramas, K-pop, K- reality, and K-movies in addition to thousands of highly rated library titles they already acquired.
“As a niche streaming service with broad reach, Kocowa is well-positioned to be competitive in the battle among streaming services by super-serving fans of Korean-produced content. It will now be even easier for viewers to watch new shows coming out of Korea at home, fully subtitled in English. I am happy that viewers will be able to discover us and enjoy Korea’s world-renown brand of entertainment.” said wA CEO KunHee Park about this new deal.
This is actually a smart step in the regard because most of the KBS, MBC and SBS titles that are not acquired by Netflix remain unavailable for audiences worldwide. Even more harder it is to find subtitles for these shows. But however it’s not clear, if the channel will be available on subscription on Amazon Prime Video India soon. Stay tuned for updates.
We’re hiring!
We are hiring two full-time junior to mid-level writers with the option to work remotely. You need to work a 5-hour shift and be available to write. Interested candidates should email their sample articles to [email protected]. Applications without a sample article will not be considered.
