Streaming services resort to K-pop documentaries to reel in subscribers

Television

Published: 06 Mar. 2023, 15:01 Updated: 06 Mar. 2023, 16:53

Streaming services resort to K-pop documentaries to reel in subscribers

A scene from "J-Hope In The Box," a Disney+ documentary on BTS's J-Hope [DISNEY+]

“I really can’t write anything.”

A frustrated J-Hope, the rapper of K-pop megaband BTS, lets out a deep sigh in his studio after struggling to make a breakthrough in his music after hours of writing, composing, rearranging and repeating over and over.

“I don’t want to do any of this, I don’t see the point,” he said. “I think this is when the slump comes.”

This is a scene from “J-Hope In The Box,” a documentary film produced by HYBE and released through streaming service Disney+ and HYBE’s fan community app Weverse.

With competition intensifying among online streaming services in Korea, many of these services are falling back to K-pop to guarantee them success and more paid subscribers. In order to differentiate themselves from other services, each of these works' producers focuses on different aspects of K-pop to appeal to a variety of audiences.

One example is the aforementioned Disney+ and Weverse documentary, “J-Hope In the Box.”

A scene from "J-Hope In The Box," a Disney+ documentary on BTS's J-Hope [DISNEY+]

The hour-and-a-half-long film tells the story of the BTS member's endeavors to create his solo debut album “Jack In The Box” (2022), from his musical struggles while he writes his own music and waiting nervously behind the stage before performing at the Lollapalooza festival, to transforming back into 29-year-old Jeong Ho-seok laughing with his mother while eating homecooked food at his childhood home.

Just two days after its release on Feb. 17, the documentary became the No. 10 most-watched film on Disney+, according to the content tracker FlixPatrol.

Disney+ also released a documentary on boy band Super Junior, one of the oldest and most successful groups in K-pop, in a program titled “Super Junior: The Last Man Standing” to tell the story of the SM Entertainment artists’ 18 years in the industry. Boy band NCT 127 will also release a Disney+ documentary titled “NCT 127: The Lost Boy” within this year.

Tving, a local streaming service founded by CJ ENM, turned its focus toward the different generations of creators, artists and fans of K-pop in its eight-episode series titled “K-pop Generation.”

Scenes from Tving's ongoing K-pop documentary series "K-pop Generation" [TVING]

The first four episodes were unveiled last month, shedding light on K-pop stars in their training years before they debut, how they’re produced and how fan activities take place. Twenty-two K-pop bands including H.O.T, Tomorrow X Together, Enhypen, Le Sserafim and IVE took part to share their experience in the industry.

The next four episodes will be released starting March 16, featuring industry insiders, critics and academics to explain the market in more detail. Solo singers BoA and Sunmi also took part to tell their stories.

K-pop stars, or “idols” as they’re referred to in Korea, have been long considered a guarantee for viewership among streaming services since their earlier stages in the 2010s, but not in all cases, according to insiders.

One example is streaming service Wavve’s K-pop entertainment show series “Boys Mental Camp” (2020). The idea of “healing through talking” for the stressed-out male idols was attractive enough for fans, but it was only a certain episode of the show — with boy band NCT Dream — that grossed new paid viewers, not the entire series.

“K-pop content with idols tends to be shorter in length, and there aren’t many episodes either, making it difficult for them to compete with other genres such as dramas or films,” said a Wavve official. “But since they target the younger viewers in their teens and 20s and overseas fans, sometimes just having the content archived is enough.”

Poster images of K-pop documentaries from streaming services, from left: "K-pop Generation" from Tving; "J-Hope In The Box" on Disney+ and Weverse; and "Fill In The Next Blank" by Watcha [EACH COMPANY]

Documentaries, however, have the upper hand because they have both the fan base and the deep insight that can attract new viewers.

“K-pop has a huge fandom, and there is definite demand for a deeper dive into the production process and so on,” pop culture critic Jeong Deok-hyun said. “There are ample reasons for producers to make documentaries because they have the potential to appeal to not only Korea but Asia and, ultimately, the world.”

Local streaming service Watcha has benefited from the same global appeal of K-pop documentaries.

Kim Chae-won, a member of girl group Le Sserafim, in Watcha's latest K-pop documentary series, "Fill In The Next Blank" [WATCHA]

The latest four-part documentary series “Fill In The Next Blank” was revealed on Watcha in January featuring four members of K-pop groups: Wooyoung of boy band Ateez, Kim Chae-won of girl group Le Sserafim, Q of The Boyz and Hyojung of Oh My Girl.

“Fill In The Next Blank” follows the four stars during their busy schedules and personal lives, getting to hear stories never before revealed in other programs.

The series has helped Watcha gain 3.4 times more new subscribers to the platform in January compared to the previous month, the steepest rise since September 2020 when the service launched in Japan for the first time.

“The show was able to result in more subscribers because we were able to unfold the K-pop genre, which is popular in Japan, through the personal stories of idols that are not easily seen in other programs,” a Watcha spokesperson said.

BY EO HWAN-HEE [kjdculture@joongang.co.kr]