How DramaFever is bringing international TV to American audiences
With the rise of OTT there's never been a greater opportunity for international television content to make it's way to American audiences. DramaFever a Hulu-style OTT platform has been growing as the destination for international TV on the web. Most recently the platform struck a major deal to bring more Korean content to the US.
The brand is owned by SoftBank Internet and Media, Inc. (“SIMI”) and was founded in 2009 by Seung Bak and Suk Park with a mission is to be "a destination for new cultural experiences through entertainment... by curating premium series and films from 70 major broadcasters and studios throughout Asia, Europe and the Americas." Found Remote interviewed Min Kim, their Director of Business Development about their growth.
Found Remote: Why was DramaFever launched?
Min Kim: DramaFever launched to bring the best of international content to the American audience. There's so much great content out there today that never sees traditional distribution in the U.S. Unlike with TV broadcasts, VOD platforms allow people to discover new content they never knew existed before and choose to watch content that appeals to them wherever and however they want. We also believe that entertainment is the gateway to culture and DramaFever can be a window to the outside world that users didn't have access to before.
FR: How do you promote your content on digital/social? Any examples?
MK: All of our marketing channels work together to promote our content. We create relevant posts specific to the digital or social medium to maximize fan engagement around a particular show.
For example, we publish a news article about the lead actress of a show on DramaFever News that gets syndicated across our premium publisher network; we post a behind-the-scenes production image on Facebook, and wardrobe choice of the main actor on Instagram; we make original video content discussing the latest episode for our YouTube channel and a short clip of a memorable scene for Vine. They work together to get users excited about watching the episode on DramaFever.
FR: What are some of the most popular shows? What have you recently acquired?
MK: Our current top title is Oh My Ghostess, a romantic comedy about a skilled chef who lacks the self-esteem to shine professionally and socially but has a unique ability to communicate with ghosts. Another title that's a perennial audience-favorite is Running Man, a variety gameshow built around the cast exploring new cultures and doing fun challenges. We recently expanded our offering to include classic British period dramas from BBC World Wide as well as feature films from Asia in partnership with CJ E&M. We are constantly looking out for the highest quality content that we can bring to our audience who are looking for something new and unique.
FR: Do you consider yourselves the Hulu or Netflix of international content?
MK: We are similar to both but also dissimilar. While there are similarities in business model and we syndicate our content on both platforms, Hulu and Netflix offer a wider range of genres to attract a general audience. At DramaFever, we go deep into a few content categories like scripted Asian dramas and foreign features and build passionate fanbases around them. We can build incredibly engaged social communities around specific shows, actors and culture that would be hard for Hulu and Netflix to replicate across all their content categories.
FR: Why do you think foreign language content in the US has been on the rise? What regions have the strongest viewership in the US?
MK: We have to credit the rise of social media and online video viewing as big contributors to increased interest in foreign culture in general. We're not limited by geographies any more and Millennials increasingly find their passions and interests outside of their physical locations. Specifically in the instance of Korean dramas, the globalization of Korean culture in the form of food and pop music has contributed to the increased demand for long form content on DramaFever. In terms of viewership in the U.S., out most popular states is the same as the most populous states: California, New York and Texas). This shows that our audience is general market -- we're not targeting endemic audiences for the content. In fact, 85 percent of our viewers are not Asian.
FR: How do you track what's doing well on the platform? Any examples you can share?
MK: We use proprietary data reporting tools to track performance of our content on a per series and per episode basis. As you can imagine, as a video service, views and minutes streamed are two of our most tracked data points.
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