Executives from Korea’s CJ ENM, JTBC Studios and Munhwa Broadcasting Corp discuss globetrotting hits such as The Masked Singer and I Can See Your Voice, investing in Hollywood and whether all-territory rights deals will harm the formats business.

MBC Entertainment’s The Masked Singer became a global hit after being picked up by Fox

South Korea’s formats export business has been firing on all cylinders over the past two years, catapulting the country’s creators and companies into the industry spotlight and initiating something of an international goldrush to find the next Korean mega-hit.

That success was typified by the dramatic success of Squid Game. But for many, the mass global appeal of the survival drama didn’t come out of nowhere.

Depending on who you ask, South Korean companies and creators from across unscripted and scripted have been revolutionising the content business for a decade or more with innovative, daring, clever and watchable formats. It’s only more recently that buyers around the world have cottoned on and started clamouring to get a piece of the action.

Take The Masked Singer, arguably the biggest unscripted television format to emerge in recent years. Produced by Korean studio MBC Entertainment for the MBC broadcast network, the project launched in Korea in 2015 and enjoyed enormous domestic success, spawning adaptations in China and Thailand. The format sees celebrities sing anonymously in full costume, while panellists must guess their identity based on clues.

Nahee Kim

But it wasn’t until four years later, when US network Fox began airing its adaptation of the format, that the “floodgates opened,” said Nahee Kim, managing director of MBC’s US subsidiary MBC America, during a virtual panel at CMPA Prime Time.

“After the Fox adaptation, everybody wanted [The Masked Singer]. I didn’t even have to call [international buyers] – they all came to us, eager to take the format,” she said of the reaction to the US version, which is produced by Endemol Shine North America, Fox Alternative Entertainment and Smart Dog Media.

The format has to date been licensed into 53 territories, include French Canada, where the local version drew mammoth numbers during its first run, and nine in Latin America. It has also continued to draw enormous audiences in Korea, where more than 340 episodes have aired to date.

It was the sweeping stateside success that really broke the dam for MBC’s formats business though, said Nahee Kim, adding that “every other format sale after that became easier. They think everything is good from our catalogue now.”

The breakout success of The Masked Singer in America also helped raise the perceived value of other Korean unscripted formats, said Diane Min, head of format sales at CJ ENM.

Like The Masked Singer, CJ ENM’s format I Can See Your Voice had launched in Korea in 2015 to impressive ratings. Initial international interest in the series was good and it sold into several territories, but sales to the US and UK proved elusive.

Se-Kwon Kim

However, things changed in January 2019 when The Masked Singer debuted on Fox, putting Korean formats firmly on international buyers’ shopping lists.

“Everything happened with The Masked Singer. When the first episode went out in January, I started to get a lot of calls,” said Min, who soon had six offers from US networks and studios to produce an adaptation of I Can See Your Voice. CJ ENM ultimately went with Fox, which premiered the series in September 2020. Local adaptations of the format are now on television in 16 countries, with seven more in development and discussions ongoing with many other territories.

Creating world-beating formats isn’t the only way Korea is making its mark on the entertainment business. Some of Korea’s largest media companies have been investing in Hollywood for years, especially in scripted content, and that ambition was highlighted most recently by CJ ENM’s majority acquisition of Endeavor Content. The company also acquired a stake in US prodco Skydance Media in 2020 and is making a US version of Parasite for HBO with that company. It also invested in DreamWorks 26 years ago.

Meanwhile, Korea’s JTBC Studios last year acquired Wiip, the production studio behind HBO’s Mare of Easttown and Apple TV+’s Dickinson.

Se-Kwon Kim, global development executive at JTBC Studios, said the companies are in the process of “getting to know each other,” with JTBC introducing Korean writers and directors to Wiip and vice-versa. “In the near future we will see the result of our collaboration,” said Se-Kwon Kim.

JTBC Studios’ fantasy thriller Hellbound for Netflix

JTBC Studios, the content arm of Korean pay TV company JTBC, is behind dating format Single’s Inferno and fantasy thriller Hellbound, both for Netflix, and Sky Castle, which became the highest-rated drama in Korean cable TV history upon its release in 2018.

The international regard for Korean drama has rocketed over the past year, with Netflix planning to debut 25 domestic originals in 2022 on the heels of Squid Game’s breakaway success.

One of Korea’s secret weapon, said Se-Kwon Kim, is the comic publisher Webtoon, which he said fosters unique storytelling voices from outside of the traditional film and television mold. The comic publisher is owned by Korean conglomerate Naver, which last year acquired Canada-based Wattpad, later merging Wattpad Studios with Webtoon Studios.

“There are a lot of unique genre stories on Webtoon, and we are producing Korean content based on that. That’s why I think the genre success for Korean content is so prominent these days.” he said.

The panelists also discussed perhaps the most important question surrounding the future prosperity of the international formats business: what impact will the rise of streaming have on the ability of format sellers to produce monster hits in the vein of The Masked Singer, MasterChef or Got Talent?

Diane Min

“How does that success exist in a world where more and more titles are ending up on streaming?” asked panel moderator Adam Steinman, who serves as VP, creative, format, development and sales at Warner Bros International Television Production.

Min answered that her perspective has changed as the market has evolved. “If you had asked me that last year, I would say that when it comes to format sales, global streamers are not the priority,” she said, noting that her opinion has shifted as more streaming players have entered the fray, creating newfound flexibility around the deal structures for formats. “I think we can just take it as another opportunity,” said Min.

Se-Kwon Kim agreed that he doesn’t see the streaming boom, and the frequency of all-territory rights deals, as an impediment to the growth of JTBC Studios’ formats business. Audiences will naturally want to see good formats adapted in their local language, he said.

“For example, one of the upcoming JTBC titles coming out this year is the Korean version of the Spanish series La Casa de Papel. We’re making it into Korean even though Korean audiences are very familiar with the original show, and it was very popular. I don’t think it’s going to be an obstacle.”