| Producer Song Byung Joon has made some of South Korea's most popular TV shows, including Princess Hours and Taxi Driver, a drama about a young cab driver who seeks vengeance for his clients. Yet when Song tried to sell two new shows, which he produced and financed on his own, he couldn't find buyers. South Korean TV networks have cut their production by almost 50% over the last couple years, triggering a crisis in the once-vibrant local entertainment industry. Now, like many other producers in Seoul, Song is praying for China to save the day. Chinese consumers were avid viewers of South Korean film and TV until 2016. That's when the Beijing government unofficially banned many businesses after the South Korean government agreed to deploy a US missile defense system. South Korean media executives are optimistic the ban will end soon, because of signals from China and because the impeachment of President Yoon may pave the way for a more China-friendly leader. "Right now, the only hope I can have is the reopening of the Chinese market," Song said. When China imposed the ban, South Korean producers were kicked out of the country. No South Korean dramas or movies have been officially approved for distribution by the Chinese government in years. South Korea sold about 110 billion won ($75 million) of media content to China in 2016. Yet the arrival of streaming services such as Netflix promised to revive the market and replace lost sales from China. Netflix increased the amount of money being spent on entertainment and offered producers access to a global audience. Producers anticipated that Disney, Apple, Paramount, HBO and Amazon would all follow. They raised money and increased their output. CJ ENM acquired Endeavor Content (now Fifth Season) in a deal that valued the independent studio at more than $900 million. Rival JTBC Studios acquired Wiip, another independent that made Mare of Easttown featuring Kate Winslet. These South Korean entertainment giants thought they'd expand all over the world. But Netflix undercut the domestic TV networks that once dominated the market, and other US companies never arrived in force. Max has only just released its content on a local platform, while Apple TV+ and Paramount+ are minor players. Disney is the only Western media company spending real money, but its budget is a fraction of what Netflix spends. As the networks lost viewers and ad sales declined, legacy media companies were forced to cut costs. Though they have created their own streaming services, such as Tving and Wavve, these companies don't have the resources to compete with Netflix. The industry is expected to release fewer than 60 drama series this year – less than half the total from just a year ago. Netflix has also gotten more sensitive about costs, which has placed a lot of pressure on studios. CJ ENM has since sold a piece of Fifth Season to Japan's Toho and cut back on spending, while JTBC, now known as SLL, has been searching for deals for Wiip as well. Tving and Wavve have been contemplating a merger to help them compete with Netflix. It's not just TV producers that are struggling. The film industry never recovered from the pandemic. Box-office sales in 2024 totaled $812 million – a drop of about 50% from 2019. That's the worst performance of any of the world's top 10 movie markets since the dawn of the pandemic. CJ ENM plans to release only two or three new films this year and shares of its movie theater chain, CJ CGV, have fallen 94% from their peak a decade ago. Producers say competition from other types of entertainment, such as YouTube, has made customers far more discriminating and harder to reach. "It's hard to increase the number of movies," said Hwang Deuk-Soo, executive vice president at CJ ENM. "It's not because we've raised the bar — the audience now has higher standards." While these are some of the same issues confronting producers in Hollywood, insiders say South Korea's crisis is more acute, with fewer options for growth. Regional players like Viu and Japan's U-Next had been big buyers of Korean content, but they have shifted investment into other genres. "I've been working in this industry for 20, 30 years, and for the first time, I can't see the road ahead," said Song, who is also chairman of the Korea Drama Production Association. "It's like I'm standing in fog." Studios are trying to adapt by tapping into other genres, such as unscripted series, which cost far less and can be churned out faster. Variety shows like Physical: 100, Culinary Class Wars and Earth Arcade accounted for 30% of streaming viewership in South Korea last year, according to Media Partners Asia. They are also looking for foreign partners to fund their shows. Studios have sold the rights to remake their programs in Japan and co-produced shows with partners in the US, Japan and Southeast Asia. But unscripted programs can't replace the money that films and scripted TV generate, and desperate producers are looking to China to reverse its position. CJ ENM expects sales to increase by 20% to 30% if China reopens, adding up to $34 million a year in revenue. Shares of Korean content companies briefly soared last month with the news that China may start preparing cultural exchanges with South Korea. Yet without any tangible moves from Chinese streaming platforms such as Tencent Video or official word from Beijing, the shares returned to their previous level. On March 21, the foreign ministers of China and South Korea agreed to restore cultural exchanges ahead of a potential visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping later this year. Local producers are crossing their fingers and toes. The best of Screentime (and other stuff) | People watch Apple TV+ now | Apple TV+ has signed up almost 6 million new customers over the last couple months, the second-best of any streaming service, per Antenna. (Paramount+ is first.) While Amazon deserves some of the credit — offering TV+ via Amazon channels has boosted sign-ups — the biggest factor has been a steady stream of popular shows, including Shrinking, Silo and now Severance, Apple's biggest hit since Ted Lasso. Severance was the fifth most-watched streaming original this year, through Feb. 23. When we factor in its full run of episodes, it may rank even higher. One show doesn't make a service. Just ask Apple about Ted Lasso. But a string of smaller hits and one big one is good news as Apple has tried to increase its success rate and rein in spending. Apple loses upward of $1 billion a year on its streaming service, according to a report in the Information. That isn't a crazy number when you consider most major streaming services lost billions of dollars in their early days. But it is a big number when you consider Apple doesn't spend any money licensing shows. (Netflix's budget for licensed shows is bigger than Apple TV+'s entire programming budget.) Despite the constant anxiety in Hollywood about Apple retreating, the company has shown no indication it wants to stop funding entertainment. Tim Cook is way more concerned with Apple's lack of progress with artificial intelligence. Two data points for the week aheadThe number of Democrats and independents using Twitter/X has plunged since Elon Musk acquired the social media service, while the number of Republicans has grown, according to Edison Research. YouTube TV added 1.1 million customers last year, which is both the best in the industry and a major slowdown, per MoffettNathanson. The No. 1 movie in the world is…Disney's Snow White, which grossed $43 million in North America and less than $90 million worldwide. Remember that it cost more than $250 million to produce. Chris Palmeri reviewed the film, which has gotten caught up in the culture wars. What's worse? The Snow White numbers or the $3 million opening for Alto Knights, Robert DeNiro's mob movie? That's two whiffs in a row for Warner Bros., which really needs A Minecraft Movie to work. The fastest-growing music market in the world is…The Middle East and North Africa, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, which said sales there increased 23% in 2024. It barely edged out sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. These regions are all pretty small compared to the US, Europe and Asia, but growth anywhere is still good. The global recorded music industry grew 4.8% last year, the slowest pace in a decade. The four largest markets in the world – the US, UK, Japan and Germany – all grew by less than 5%. (Japan actually shrank.) We have covered this slowdown many times, so I am going to spare you a longer explanation. (You can read more here and here.) But I do want to point out one interesting nugget from the report: Drake was the second-best-selling act last year, trailing only Taylor Swift. Kendrick Lamar, his rival, finished ninth. A changing of the guard in HollywoodJeremy Zimmer, the head of United Talent Agency, is stepping aside and ceding the top job to his long-time deputy David Kramer. Zimmer co-founded Hollywood's third-largest talent agency in 1991 alongside Jim Berkus and Peter Benedek and expanded the agency into digital media, fine art, sports and international talent. The company, which represents Greta Gerwig, Chris Pratt and Timothée Chalamet, raised money from private equity firm EQT in 2022. While UTA has outlasted many other agencies, including ICM, it lost several high-profile clients last year and has been hurt by the pullback in spending across Hollywood. Kramer will now need to figure out how to do more with less. Deals, deals, deals - Ari Emanuel is paying a Swiss tech company $125 million to take a betting business off his hands.
- Village Roadshow, one of the most successful film financiers of this century, filed for bankruptcy.
- South Korea's biggest music company won a court case to remain the sole manager of the girl group NewJeans. A loss would have upended the K-pop industry.
- Major Hollywood celebrities wrote a letter urging the White House not to roll back copyright protections to help AI companies.
- The senior Democrat on the Federal Communications Commission is resigning.
I am using all this travel to catch up on some foreign movies, including The Roundup: Punishment, Stand By Me and some Bruce Lee. | 
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