Instead of Costly Dramas, Sports and Entertainment Take the Lead... Short-form Content Evolves into a Commerce Gateway

Sports Broadcasting Captivates All Age Groups, Driving Subscription Rate Up to 24.3%

Entertainment and Variety Genres Also Rise... Travel, Food, and Cooking Preferred

10% of Short-form Users Make Direct Purchases

"Transparency Must Be Ensured"

TVING signed a contract for the 2024-2026 KBO League new media broadcasting rights for 135 billion won (an average of 45 billion won per year).

As the preference for sports broadcasting and entertainment programs surges among domestic OTT users, content consumption patterns are shifting.

According to "OTT Usage Patterns in the Era of Value-for-Money Portfolios," published by the Korea Creative Content Agency on March 10, 24.3% of respondents said they subscribe to OTT platforms to watch sports broadcasts. This figure represents a sharp increase of 8.9 percentage points from the previous year's 15.4%. By gender, men (38.8%) showed a much stronger motivation to subscribe for sports than women (10.4%). Compared to the previous year, the rate increased by 13.8 percentage points for men and 3.5 percentage points for women.

It is also noteworthy that this trend is not limited to a specific age group. The high sports subscription rate was observed across all generations, from teenagers (16.4%) to those in their 60s (20.4%), with people in their 30s (30.8%) forming the core viewership. Even among those aged 70 and older, although the sample size was small, the rate reached 31.2%.

This is largely driven by domestic OTT platforms' strategies to secure exclusive sports broadcasting rights. Tving signed a contract worth 135 billion KRW (an average of 45 billion KRW per year) for the 2024-2026 season KBO League new media broadcasting rights. In November last year, it also agreed to renew the contract for the 2027-2031 period, with a five-year deal valued at approximately 450 billion KRW (an average of 90 billion KRW per year). It is reported that Tving has secured not only the live broadcasting rights but also domestic and overseas video distribution rights.

Coupang Play, following its exclusive broadcasting of K League matches, continues to expand its sports offerings to include national team football matches, the English Premier League (EPL), Formula 1 (F1), and the National Basketball Association (NBA).

Kim Seonghan, CEO of Coupang Play (right), and Kwon Ohgap, President of the Korea Professional Football Federation, after signing a comprehensive partnership agreement.

The transfer of sports broadcasting rights to paid OTT platforms initially raised concerns about the infringement of universal viewing rights. However, as the platforms entered their second year of exclusive broadcasting, viewers’ resistance to paid content, both in terms of price and technology, has eased significantly.

Unlike dramas, sports content serves as a powerful retention tool that drives continuous subscription. While dramas may prompt subscribers to cancel after a series ends, sports leagues keep fans tied to the platform throughout the season.

The rise in popularity of entertainment and variety genres rivals that of sports broadcasting. Among paid platform subscribers, preference for this category reached 62.0%, up 4.4 percentage points from the previous year, closely trailing dramas, which remain the dominant genre at 69.5%.

An in-depth analysis of 2,200 entertainment and variety genre enthusiasts revealed that real variety (80.4%) and observational entertainment (55.5%) were the most popular subgenres. Talk shows (40.9%) and audition/survival programs (35.0%) also maintained high levels of popularity.

The most favored topics were travel (61.8%), food and cooking (57.3%), and music and performance (50.1%), in that order. Programs featuring exotic scenery such as "Born to Travel the World," "Earth Arcade," and "Earth Marble" led the success in the travel category. At the end of last year, shows like "Black and White Chef" and "Please Take Care of My Refrigerator," which became sensations, fueled the culinary content boom.

In the movie and drama genres, comedy and sitcoms were the most preferred at 57.2%. In terms of themes, family (56.0%) overtook crime and mystery (53.1%) for the top spot. Youth and coming-of-age themes also rose by about 5 percentage points. Overall, there is a growing demand for light-hearted and warm content over heavy narratives.

Netflix 'Black and White Chef 2' Press Conference Venue. Photo by Yonhap News

Short-form content has evolved beyond simple entertainment into an independent consumption point and a gateway for commerce. Last year, the overall usage rate was 58.6%, and among free OTT users alone, it was as high as 66.2%. By age group, those in their 20s showed the highest usage rate at 82.2%, establishing themselves as the core consumer base.

Among all short-form content users, 93.4% regularly watched YouTube. Nearly seven out of ten people (66.0%) accessed it daily, and 33.4% watched multiple times a day. The most popular video types were entertainment and variety (62.1%), dramas (38.1%), lifestyle and information (36.9%), news and current affairs (31.8%), and movies (29.3%).

After watching, about half (49.7%) of viewers did not take any additional action. Only 11.3% went on to watch the full-length (original) content. As fragmented, summary-based consumption has become routine, a self-contained, independent ecosystem has taken shape.

Within this ecosystem, viewers frequently made purchases. 33.3% clicked on shopping links within videos, and among them, 31.4% actually bought something. That means about one in ten viewers (10.5%) went straight from watching a video to a commerce payment page. This consumption structure was largely supported by women (39.5% click-through rate, 36.4% purchase rate) and those in their 20s and 30s (over 43% click-through rate, over 38% purchase rate).

Kim Inae, Lead Researcher at the Data Policy Team of the Korea Creative Content Agency, emphasized, "New revenue models that integrate video and commerce will lead the market in the future," and added, "Ensuring transparency in transactions, including a clearly stated obligation to indicate algorithm-recommended products, is a prerequisite."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.