Disney will take down its licensed films from the local streaming platform wavve by this month, as it gears up to roll out Disney+ in Korea.
Wavve announced, Saturday, that about 100 films, including the mega-hit movies “Frozen” and the Marvel and “Star Wars” series, will no longer be available from the subscription service after April 30, “as per the copyright holder’s request.” The films will still be available on a pay-per-view basis.
“The (license) contract with Disney is to expire this month, and Disney notified us recently that it will not extend the contract,” the platform said. “We intend to acquire other additional premium movies to provide services to our current users.”
Wavve reportedly got its hands on other newly released films and has inked deals for several hit movies.
Disney is apparently seeking to gain a competitive advantage for its own streaming service in the country’s burgeoning over-the-top (OTT) media market, led currently by the global streaming giant Netflix.
Late last year, Disney announced plans to extend its OTT streaming service in more countries by the end of 2021, including Korea, Hong Kong and Eastern European countries.
The entertainment conglomerate, which has major studios like Pixar, Marvel, and National Geographic under its wing, made the same move to pull out its shows and films from Netflix prior to launching Disney+ in November 2019.
The platform surpassed 100 million subscribers worldwide as of last month.
Competition is heating up between streaming services in Korea, where the OTT market increased from 100 billion won ($88.6 million) in 2012 to 780 billion won ($691 million) last year, according to the Korea Communications Commission.
Another streaming giant in the U.S., Apple TV+, recently announced the production of its first Korean-language original series, “Dr. Brain,” hinting at an official launch in the country.
Local streaming services are also making vast investments to produce original content to increase their stakes in the market.
Wavve, run by Korea’s three broadcasters ― KBS, MBC and SBS ― with SK Telecom, announced a 1 trillion won investment plan to release its original series by 2025, including 80 billion won ($70.9 million) this year alone for series like “Taxi Driver.”
TVING, created by CJ E&M and JTBC, is also releasing a string of original dramas and reality shows, such as “Scripting Your Destiny” and “The Four Seasons of Baek Jong-won.”
