[In-depth Report] Top A-artists is too expensive to hire! Costing 1 billion Korean won per episode! The industry points out 4 works that have greatly succeeded with a counter strategy.
Following on from the previous article discussing the impact of Korean dramas after they landed on Netflix, and the constantly increasing production costs, many production companies are facing threats from domestic OTT platforms. This is also drawing significant attention to the future direction of Korean dramas. As previously mentioned, the entry of international OTT platforms has brought about changes in the South Korean drama market. Indeed, the arrival of these well-funded platforms has elevated the overall quality of the industry's productions. From writers, directors, performers, amd casts to the entire production team, they have all grasped the most important elements during filming. However, without enough preparation, more TV dramas failed to level up. According to a report by "Herald Economy", the rising production costs are undoubtedly related to personnel costs; thus, under the circumstance of rising labor costs, it has become more difficult for production companies with weaker capital. In the past 1 to 3 years, among the TV dramas that have been pre-produced, there hasn't been a channel or platform found to broadcast them, and over 20 such dramas are just accumulating in the warehouse. Therefore, if a drama is already produced but cannot be aired or listed on a platform or television station, it will also have an impact on the production company. In addition, when discussing personnel expenses, it's difficult not to touch on the impact of actor fees and the cost of shooting individual episodes. If the production cost of each episode exceeds 700 million to 800 million Korean won, then most TV stations or production companies may face the loss due to excessively high production costs. But it's a harsh reality that, in terms of so-called A-list actors online, the number of actors who earn more than 300 million Korean Won per episode is not small. Therefore, if we are looking for top-tier casts for domestic and overseas viewers, the maximum pay per episode could reach 1 billion Korean Won, which could be said to take up a high proportion of the production budget. Under such conditions, platforms and production teams that can bear the burden, such as international platforms Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV and others, are more capable of handling such works compared to local Korean teams. This is also one of the reasons why many works eventually lean towards international platforms. But interestingly, an actor's salary may be somewhat influenced by their stardom and popularity, but it's not a hundred percent assurance of the success of a drama. The problem is, with the fees of other actors on the rise, it's hard to secure actors at the ideal price. Therefore, as the overall production costs increase, the opportunities to invite top-paid actors to appear in dramas of the three major TV stations and terrestrial TV stations will gradually decrease. In addition, as the viewing habits of the current audience gradually change, they use OTT watching more often than TV. Therefore, compared to being broadcast on TV, the influence and popularity of OTT can be said to be getting higher and higher. Nowadays, many actors hope to become world-class actors through international platforms like Netflix. After all, just starring in one drama can attract millions of followers and fame internationally, providing more exposure opportunities. This has also made Netflix a powerful platform for launching globally popular works. In other words, in the current industry, Netflix not only holds an advantage, but even tends to monopolize the market. At present, there are no OTT platforms that can compete with Netflix. This also worries the public, as there might be a situation in the future where only Netflix can determine the prices. But on the contrary, there are many who win with excellent content to attract the public's attention and even receive good feedback, rather than embracing the international platform from the start. There are also many such cases. For example, Korea's SLL (formerly known as JTBC Production) has established a good reputation with many original quality works. For example, in the four TV dramas launched in the first half of this year alone, they not only used new writers successfully popular, but also works written by debut writers like "The Interest of Love", "Agency", "Doctor Cha", "The Good Bad Mother" etc. are all mini-drama debuts." According to a report by Korean media, SLL's chief producer once stated, "If we used to prioritize the quality of the work, now we should also consider its mass appeal, especially in the highly competitive weekend dramas. The chief producer believes that 'Doctor Cha' which achieved the highest viewership in the first half of this year perhaps has a strong and popular color of weekend serial drama. However, weekend dramas are not low-quality works but exhibit family dramas in our own way. By adding mass appeal to the existing content, it can gain widespread favor.'" It's not hard to see that rather than flocking to international platforms in order to gain substantial resources, if one can produce works that are both rich in content and substantial, even mini-series with not so high capital can also produce works that cater to public taste and gain popularity, slowly addressing the problems currently faced by the industry.
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