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Its been nearly two years sinceSquid Gamedebuted on Netflix and became aglobal phenomenonvirtually overnight.
Netflix Korea has also expanded into reality TV, garnering global viewing forPhysical: 100andSingles Inferno.
Whats the basic plan for how to spend it?
Or are you simply just being more ambitious because youve seen theres a broad international market for your shows?
Its obviously a mixture.
The demand is very high for Korean content.
There are many interesting stories that were seeing that require a little more investment.
So in terms of volume theres so many different tastes out there.
Different people like different stories, and we really want to super-serve those different tastes.
Its not going to get to 500 titles per year.
PostSquidGame, do you look more carefully at whether your shows can travel?
Or do you just keep your focus on making sure it works for Korea?
A show is like a living creature.
You could have an okay script, but you could end up with a pretty good show.
To imagine you’ve got the option to know audiences outside Korea?
To me it almost seems arrogant.
So long story short, yeah, we do focus for Korean audiences primarily.
Here in the U.S., as Im sure youre aware, the Writers Guild strike is affecting production.
How does development of projects work in Korea?
I think a lot of the projects happen very spontaneously.
We have close relationships professional and personal with different creators, different studios.
And we spontaneously discuss projects.
A creator doesnt necessarily come into the office to do a whole one-hour pitch session.
We have some shows which are pre-buys.
Pre-buys are basically titles that we invest in very early, before they actually get made.
So, it depends on what bang out category youre asking this question about.
And our partnership with CJ and Studio Dragon is still very strong and ongoing.
We just recently renewed the deal.
A lot of the early buzz about Korean content traveling to the U.S. was focused on K-drama.
So, nonfiction is a big bet for us.
We are planning to do about 12 unscripted shows in 2023, which is up from five in 2022.
Were doubling down on our unscripted efforts.
For the longest time, Korean nonfiction shows have not had any traction outside Korea or Asian-Pacific territories.
Its a very, very positive signal, and its been one of my biggest goals.
Netflix has made localized versions of many of its American reality shows.
Do you want that for your unscripted series, and if so, is anything in the works?
Yes, that would be very exciting.
Theres a lot in discussion, but nothing has been decided.
But I could totally see something likePhysical 100with U.S. contestants.
There could be a U.S. version.
There could be a global version.
So, were talking about a lot of things and Im very excited about the discussion.
How many of the 34 titles youre releasing this year will be movies?
I think we are doing maybe six to seven this year.So thats about 20 percent of your overall roster.
Do you want to change the split between movies and TV and make a lot more movies?
So much focus these days is on drama, but Im wondering where comedy fits into your TV gameplan.
I think as long as you get it right, I think it could totally come back.
You know a lot about Korean audiences.
Has American content ever been popular there?
And is that still the case?
U.S. content has always been a big entertainment source for Korean people.
Maybe during the linear-TV era, we saw less room for TV stations to serve that audience in Korea.
I think, again, people have widely different tastes and it changes over time.
Local content will always be very, very strong.
But people watch different shows from all around the world.
Having both those options available obviously makes it more likely a show will reach a wider audience, right?
For our original and branded titles, we do dubbing and subtitles from anywhere between 13 to 30-something languages.
Before coming to Netflix, I used to distribute premium content to the world.
We see a lot of dubbing consumption in countries like Latin America and certain countries in Southeast Asia.
But even within that country, different people have different preferences towards subtitles or dubbing.
But when Im watching certain Japanese anime shows, I prefer dubbing.
People have different tastes.
Were all unique human beings.
Im very much looking forward to that one.
Its a female-led action thriller.
Correct me if Im wrong, but Christmas is celebrated by many people in Korea.
Netflix has had a lot of success with Christmas and holiday movies.
Any chance we might be able to get a holiday movie from Netflix Korea?Do you want one?
Yes, I do!
Christmas movies … is that a thing in Korea?
Not really, no.
But maybe its something that we can consider.
But that celebratory, make-you-feel-good pop in of film?
I think there is a huge opportunity in Korean cinema.
Sometimes there are stories that are underrepresented because traditionally they had relatively smaller audience sizes.
For example, its very difficult to see romantic-comedy films from Korea.
Maybe one of those could be a great Christmas movie for Netflix.
But its in progress.
Its ingoodprogress, and we will give you an update as soon as we are ready.
Do you get that question a lot?
I get that question a lot.
I use the same sentence to answer that question.
