As with the marked decrease of Korean dramas in Japanese TV programs, the stagnation of the so-called Korean Wave in the broadcasting industry has become visible.
According to the forecast report based on the Korean dramas recently shown in Japan, conducted by Korea Broadcasting Institute (KBI, Chair: Yu, Kyun), the number of Japanese broadcasting companies that programmed Korean dramas on Japanese terrestrial wave TV channels has decreased compared to 2006. In 2006, a total of 36 Japanese terrestrial TV channels had programmed Korean dramas,. This has dropped to 29 in 2007.
The report also said that such a drop was making the future of Korean Wave in broadcasting gloomy because without its exposure to the unspecified majority in Japan, the continuous development of new Korean Wave fans might not be possible.
In fact, sales from the broadcasting rights of "Winter Sonata", a representative Korean Wave drama that has made waves in Japan, was only 440 million yen, but the income that NHK has earned from deviate product markets was 3.5 billion yen in 2003 and 5.2 billion yen in 2004.
Although the number of the terrestrial TV channels showing Korean dramas has decreased, the number of channels and of Korean dramas in satellite channels, a charge-based broadcasting market, has gone up. This could mean an expansion of the Korean Wave in the charge-based broadcasting market.
The reported also noted that given the decrease of the Korean dramas' exposure to Japanese TV and the increase of their presence in the charge-based broadcasting market, it would be important to make inroads into the charged-based broadcasting market, separate from those for the terrestrial wave TV broadcasting sector. At the same time, this could create an organic connection between these two strategic moves.
It also added that the power terrestrial wave TV channels have in expanding new Korean dramas' introduction and adaptation towards the unspecified majority and in exposing Korean dramas to the second-stage market should be recognized.
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