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South Korea's Wavve to provide content to NBCUniversal's new OTT service

Korean dramas like "Crash Landing On You" (pictured) will be provided by Content Wavve to NBCUniversal.
Korean dramas like "Crash Landing On You" (pictured) will be provided by
Content Wavve to NBCUniversal.

15 Apr – NBCUniversal has signed a three-year deal with South Korea's Content Wavve, with the latter agreeing to provide the former with Korean content that include movies and TV series.

The partnership was reported by Business Korea last Sunday and the latest update from Forbes reveal that the shared contents will be made available on NBCUniversal's own new streaming platform, Peacock.

The Korean contents are expected to be made available on Peacock starting from May, according to Variety, though it could be sooner since The Verge is reporting that the streaming service will be launching in the U.S. tomorrow for customers of Comcast, which NBCUniversal is a subsidiary of.


Content Wavve, established last year – as a way to counter Netflix – by Korea's major broadcasters, KBS, SBS and MBC, along with SK Telecom, is planning to spend USD50 million (KRW60 billion) this year on original content production. Hence why the supply deal also includes a co-investment agreement between the Korean and American parties.

Launched as a merger of SK Telecom's Oksusu and Pooq streaming platforms, it already has 14 million subscribers – 10 million from the former and 4 million from the latter.

Content Wavve has yet to be made available in Southeast Asia but there are plans of expansion into the region.

So far, in South Korea, other American OTT services such as Disney+ and Apple TV+ are currently looking into expanding into the country, which already has its own streaming services, LG's U+ Mobile TV, and Korea Telecom's Olleh TV, aside from Content Wavve.




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