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Reading the future of the content industry 2020 Content Insight

February 24, 2021

Reading the future of the content industry 2020 Content Insight

From October 21 to 23, 2020, 2020 Content Insight, where you can learn the “changes“ in the content industry, was held on the official YouTube channel of the Korea Creative Content Agency. This three-day event held under the themes of “change in technology“, “change in consumption“, and “change in society“ served as a place of sharing insights for sustainable growth of the content industry.

DAY1_Change in technology: Immersive content drawing near

Moderator: Jongmin Kim (XR Curator, Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival)
Panels: Woontack Woo (Professor, KAIST Graduate School of Cultural Technology),
Ikhwan Cho (Managing Director, SK Telecom), Yeonggeun SHin (Team Manager, LGU+),
Yeongho Lee (Team Manager, KT)

Jongmin Kim• What are changes in content consumption and production environment caused by COVID-9?

Team leader Im Seok-bong• In a sense, immersive media and immersive content is an area where the gap between reality and ideal is very large. It has a rosy future ahead, but various efforts and difficulties await in the process of making it a reality.

Woontack Woo• In case of music, the two online and offline business models are expected to be compatible. Just as the music industry shifted from physical album-centric to digital sound source-centric in the early 2000s, contactless performances caused by COVID-19 will change the structure of the music industry once again.

Ikhwan Cho• What carriers do is use the communication technology to allow people to communicate. Our method of service may change with time – letters to phone calls to e-mails – but I think the basic role we carry out remains the same. Social VR and XR are also in line with it. I believe our role is to establish and build a foundation for platforms that will promote communication, find good content to be featured, and make them into killer content.

Yeonggeun Shin• We have formed the XR All Alliance with Qualcomm from the US, and carriers from Canada, Japan, and China to jointly produce premium content. For immersive content, the first experience is of great importance. Customers who think VR is too dizzy or who don’t get VR never return. We can decide to establish the ecosystem and the value chain first, and then provide high-quality content. To take an initiating role, we figured it was necessary to continue producing high-quality content itself, and the companies that shared the same idea joined to proceed.

Yeongho Lee• As Prof. Woo mentioned earlier, it would be best to make one content that can be played on various devices or platforms, but the subscriber pool is too small at the moment, so each carrier wishes to make its own profit. The reality is that the carriers are using content that is unique to themselves for promotion, emphasizing “the service that is only found here”, “the content that only we have” to persuade consumers to choose their platform and carrier. Of course, as time passes and the subscriber pool expands, the service will expand just like today’s mobile content market.

Woontack Woo• I believe the market for the AR and VR platforms grows when people enjoy with others rather than enjoying alone. From this perspective, I think this VR market will not expand if the question “Can five of us each bring a different device to have the same level of experience inside the same space?” cannot be satisfied. I think we will be able to see the market clearly and make it grow by viewing it as social media, which can only be enjoyed with others unlike movies or TV shows. Of course, each carrier will need to do its own work, but I hope all carriers will take interest in developing the market with a bigger perspective.

Jongmin Kim• Each carrier, as an individual developer, will have its own concerns and difficulties due to the complex decision-making structure. Nonetheless, as Prof. Woo said, I think that there should be more and more places where academics, industries, content creators, and engineers can gather, not in their individual group, to put their interests behind and discuss the overall immersive content industry together.

DAY2_Change in consumption: Expansion of the worldview and characters

Moderator: Yongjoon Min, movie journalist
Panels: Dongyeon Won (CEO, Realize Pictures), Wooseok Yang (Producer of Steel Rain, cartoonist)

Yongjoon Min• Mr. Won has produced the webtoon Along with the Gods by Homin Joo as a film. Producer Wooseok Yang has produced the film Steel Rain, which he participated as the story writer for the webtoon the film was based on. You probably have gone through interesting things as well as difficulties as a producer and a director in the process of turning a webtoon into a movie.

Wooseok Yang• In fact, the biggest part in the industry for content such as films and TV series is developing a scenario into a script. There were many cases that died out. The United States, which can be said to be a powerhouse of original content, has a vast market for original works, but that wasn’t the case for Korea. Recently, the market for webtoons and web novels became buoyant, and Korea now has a lot of original works and this has led to a significant decrease in the marketing cost.

Dongyeon Won• In the story business, whether its’ for movies or TV series, the part that takes consumes the most time and money is determining what kind of story to tell. If we come up with ten works, then only a couple goes into production. Using the story of webtoons or web novels that are already popular can reduce time and cost. Also, the comments show which part the people enjoyed, so it helps a lot with setting the direction. So we think of webtoons and web novels as a treasure map that leads us to the Holy Grail.

Yongjoon Min• While it seems like COVID-19 won’t go away any time soon, we can’t go without talking about platforms. I think the discussion about what the relationship between the OTT services and the theater industry is going to be in the long term – whether the two will coexist or be in conflict – is being accelerated.

Wooseok Yang• OTTs are favored because of the smart devices. You can watch 8K on TVs, but only 2K and 4K at the theater. To have the theaters coexist with the OTTs, their audiovisual environment needs to be upgraded. The most similar to the OTTs’ business model is IPTV. You pay the monthly payment and watch the content. OTTs, especially Netflix, solves the problem with the subscription system. At first, it is bound to have a huge deficit, but once it secures subscribers, it leads to profit. No one can deny the fact that Netflix has crossed the critical point and became mainstream in the Korean content market. I think Netflix plays a good role in the Korean content market at the moment, but there is a fear that it will eventually invade the market. Then what will happen to the local OTTs? Personally, I think OTTs will be the oilfield of the 21st century – like how there’s an economic difference between the countries with oilfields and the countries without oilfields. In this aspect, China and the US are leading the global OTT market. China has the OTT with the most users in the world and the US, setting Netflix aside, a lot of theater content was resourced to OTT in the past five years. Korea has OTTs but there is a concern about the level of input.

Dongyeon Won• From the producer’s perspective, I’m paying close attention to in what direction the films will go between the theaters and the OTTs after COVID-19. In fact, the biggest problem in Korean film was oversupply. The movie theaters have been the absolute power with 2,800 screens. Things are changing with COVID-19. Film producers like us faced difficulties when our work couldn’t make a hit at the theater, but now we can safely get money to produce a film for OTTs, which will bring us the opportunity to sign for the next movie. Until now, movies had a very short life cycle, which made it difficult for us to make a profit. However, with the movies being offered on OTTs, this structure will continuously create profit although it may take time. So I hope people won’t feel too intimidated or discouraged. I also absolutely agree with Prod. Yang. If there is no Korean OTTs, which means local content will be supplied only to global content companies, the creators in Korea might end up being suppliers. This needs national attention, and I really hope the Korean companies will not become subordinate to the platform operators.

Yongjoon Min• It looks like what you two mentioned in common is the IPR of content. In the end, it seems that the issue of who owns the right and who can own it can become a very big issue, and it seems that it can lead to a monopoly of content. Lastly, please comment on how we should view the content market.

Dongyeon Won• I am well aware that a lot of people in the content industry are intimidated and concerned. However, even in Korea, even if they are not Netflix or DG Plus, there are many platforms where people can offer their own content such as YouTube. So I am convinced that there will come a time where creators will make a profit. I hope people will hang in there and cheer up.

Wooseok Yang• Some industries were hurt by COVID-19, but I’ve once heard that COVID-19 may have brought improvements that would have taken 20 years to happen. The reason why Korean webtoons have made great strides recently is that we dominated the platform. Line Manga and Kakao Webtoon are successful examples of Korean platforms entering the global market. And I think K-pop wouldn’t have made it this far without YouTube. I hope the content creators, especially the Korean creators, will work harder in this global supply chain.

Yongjoon Min• Perhaps you were saying that we can find a breakthrough in a crisis. The Korean webtoon industry grew amid the crisis of printed comics, so I believe there will be some kind of answer that we can find in this crisis as well.

DAY3_Change in society: Content diversity

Moderator: Hyeri Kim (Editor, Cine21)
Panels: Serang Chung (Writer, The School Nurse Files), Joohyeong Kim (EP, Company Sangsang),
Sunae Lim (Director, An Old Lady)

Hyeri Kim• Hello. Can any one of you share your experience of seeing changes in the cultural community with regards to the awareness of diversity or gender sensitivity, and when and how in particular?

Sunae Lim• I felt a lot of changes are being made after the Me Too movement. I started shooting The Old Lady in March 2019. It was when the education on the prevention of sexual assault and harassment in the film industry by Deundeun had started. Each group had a hands-on experience of the case that occurred in the field. We were to simulate what we would do in the case, and I really enjoyed the session. It was a chance to see the words and behavior of the individuals whom I met every day as staff, an actor, or a director.

Hyeri Kim• It became mandatory for a lot of production companies, and I think it is proper to make the time of conversing before shooting become a part of the process. I think it is the literary world that usually individuals work in isolation. Ms. Chung, have you ever thought that changes were being made by looking at the works of other authors?

Serang Chung• The authors have changed, but since a few years ago, the readers have been desperate about more diverse narrations. Thankfully, the authors who were ready were able to respond. The cost is relatively low for the publication industry, so I think what is why female narrative works could be released several years earlier.

Hyeri Kim• If you think about it, only a dozen years ago, there was the term “lady writer” and talks about the weaknesses of female writers. However, now the literary circles are paying attention to a lot of young female writers, and I, at some point, realized that they are not writing only with their girly sensitivity but with powerful storytelling in their own genre. Prod. Kim, you said there is a procedure that you mandatorily go through. Can you give us an example?

Joohyeong Kim• Wanting a new material or a new person would be a natural demand of the society. It is what the audience demands, but it is a risk for the content creators. Let me expand to make additional comments. Society must be inclusive and diverse, but that is what makes conflicts among us. For example, Narae Park’s experience about sex that she mentioned in Glamour Warning is a story that everyone can relate to, but for some people, it is a topic not to be talked about. I think it should not be interpreted as a limitation with regards to topics.

Hyeri Kim• In the case of Director Lim, it’s the double minority. People around you may have concerns when you wanted to talk about a heavy story about a woman, an old lady. On the other hand, it may have brought you fervent supporters.

Sunae Lim• Right. In a way, I think it should be said that society has changed first, and people started to show interest in the story. I had planned this story even before the Me Too movement, but a lot of scenarios like this came out after the movement. That could have made it less rare, but there was still no story that deals with a sexual assault of an old lady. So, I think diversity is, inherently, an advantage. I just came to think that the platform itself, which does not allow us to reach as many audiences and viewers, is bound to be a handicap.

Hyeri Kim• In that aspect, I think we need to pay attention to the diversification of platforms. Ms. Chung’s The School Nurse Files was made into a 6-episode series, which was released on Netflix. I’ve heard that you are planning on another Netflix series about a single woman. How does the diversification of content platforms like YouTube, Netflix, and other OTTs affect the creators who want to talk about topics other than what was considered “safe” thus far?

Serang Chung• I’ve only been in this industry for three years, but the more I meet the people in the industry, the more I hear comments like “Make bolder moves,” and “Don’t think it’s impossible.” So I expect the changes to become greater in the future.

Joohyeong Kim• This is what the content creators say about the diversification of platforms: “Even the minor genres can now survive.” For example, we don’t see many sitcoms, legal entertainment shows, or comedy shows. Just because the majority supports something, it doesn’t mean it’s absolutely right.

Hyeri Kim• Is there anything that can be predicted not only in terms of the diversity that the change in the distribution of the population will naturally bring but also the areas where popular culture can change as the market and population distribution change?

Sunae Lim• At the Seoul International Senior Film Festival, it was found that most of the short films produced by young people featured seniors who were depressed, at the end of their life – seniors who collect waste paper, for example. But the short films produced by seniors features characters who are extraordinary, fun, and different. I came to think that we shouldn’t see the middle-aged and senior population only as of the subjects of consumption. Instead of us consuming them as subjects, if they were to become producers themselves, then naturally, more diverse stories will come out.

Hyeri Kim• It seems that now we are faced with demands that change rapidly and diversify like how cells divide. Plus, with the unexpected pandemic as a variable, it’s like we are standing in a fast-flowing stream where the way of producing and consuming content is quickly changing.