TVing, a South Korean over-the-top (OTT) platform, is beefing up live sports and TV series featuring baseball players to catch up to Netflix, the indisputable No. 1 streaming company.
Its focus on sports content seemed to work. In October, its monthly active users (MAU) shot up 44.2% on-year to 8.1 million, marking its largest-ever monthly tally, according to Mobile Index, a data provider.
By contrast, Netflix’s MAU in South Korea fell 7.1% to 11.9 million last month, narrowing its gap with TVing to 3.8 million from 7.0 million a year before.
Compared with Coupang Play, which is competing for the No. 2 spot in the domestic streaming market, TVing widened its gap to 1.0 million to cement its position.
Industry watchers contributed the sharp increase in TVing’s active users to live broadcasts of professional baseball games.
In March, the unit of CJ Group secured exclusive broadcast rights for the Korea Baseball Association (KBO) League. Sports stars’ storytelling programs such as Perfect League 2024 also were credited to TVing’s user base growth.
Now that the 2024 KBO League season ended last month, TVing will focus on live basketball streams and release new TV sports shows this winter.
But TVing is not alone in expanding into the sports broadcasting. Netflix streamed the boxing match between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson on Nov. 15. It became the most-streamed sporting event ever, watched by 60 million households, according to Netflix.
Further, Netflix’s alliance with Naver, South Korea’s No. 1 internet portal, poses a threat to TVing. From Nov. 26, Naver’s paid members will be allowed access to Netflix.
Among smartphone OTT apps, TVing ranked third with 7.25 million users in October, trailing Netflix with 11.8 million and Coupang Play with 7.6 million, according to industry tracker Wiseapp Retail Goods.
By Ji-Eun Jeong
jeong@hankyung.com
Yeonhee Kim edited this article.
