▲ Various OTT services (source:sisajournal-e)

OTT services began to attract attention as the non-face-to-face market spread, due to Covid19. OTT stands for “Over The Top”, and refers to a service that provides broadcasting and movies through the open internet to millions of viewers. Recently, new OTTs continue to emerge beyond existing OTTs such as Netflix, Watcha, and TVing. One of them, Disney Plus, debuted in Korea on November 12.

Disney Plus offers about 8,000 pieces of digital content such as Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and National Geographic, with original content produced in Korea, available on STAR. Disney Plus has many strengths. Disney Plus can be accessed simultaneously from up to four devices and up to seven profile settings, allowing more people to use the content with one account, than other services. It also supports mobile, tablet, and Smart TV, so you can enjoy it through various devices. Disney Plus is available at a lower price than other OTT services because it still has relatively few libraries as compared to competing streaming services. Other services differ in image quality depending on the fee, but Disney Plus offers 4K HDR on a single fee, and Disney Plus’ clear strength is that it has differentiated exclusive content.

With the emergence of various services, competition in the domestic OTT market is intensifying. Netflix has a high market share of 40% in Korea, due to its exclusive content. Due to such a high market share, Netflix is not expected to be shaken much by the introduction of Disney Plus, but unlike Netflix, domestic OTT companies are expected to lose a lot of market shares, due to the lack of exclusive content. Competition to secure Korean content in the OTT industry is intensifying, as there have recently been cases of success with exclusive content such as, ‘Squid Game,’ ‘My Name,’ and ‘DP.’ As it can be seen that OTT’s competitiveness is exclusive content, domestic OTT companies are also working hard to create exclusive content to satisfy audiences.

Oh Sang-ho, CEO of Walt Disney Korea, said, "Content produced in each country is not only gaining popularity with in their own countries, but also gaining popularity worldwide through platforms such as OTT. Disney also has seven Korean self-produced programs to be released with the launch, and viewers of Japan and Singapore, where Disney Plus has entered first, continue to demand Korean content, further realizing Korea's growth,” he said. We think the current OTT market is in a transitional period. In the future, we hope that a global OTT market will be created in which Korean OTT companies will grow together with Korean produced content.

By So Min-young, cub-reporter  minyoung_1216@naver.com

<저작권자 © The Campus Journal, 무단 전재 및 재배포 금지>