Tving to roll out ad-supported subscription tier in March

Tving will roll out its new ad-supported subscription plan next month. [TVING]

Local streaming service Tving will roll out an ad-supported subscription level next month for the first time to make the platform more appealing for potential advertisers and bolster its revenue streams.

Tving is the first among homegrown platforms to launch an ad-supported tier.

The ad-supported model is priced at 5,500 won monthly, about 42 percent cheaper than the most basic tier previously of 9,500 won. The price tag for the new model is same as Netflix’s ad-supported subscription.

The new membership will be available on March 4.

Tving will then consist of four subscription models: the ad-supported standard tier priced at 5,500 won and three other ad-free tiers priced at 9,500 won, 13,500 won and 17,000 won.

The new ad-supported plan offers access to the streaming platform through various devices, from mobile to tablet, PC and TV, similar to the ad-free subscriptions, and provides high-resolution video quality of 1080p just like the standard membership priced at 13,500 won.

The resolution quality is higher than its cheapest ad-free plan of 9,500 won, which provides a maximum of 720p.

Up to four profiles can be created under one account and up to two simultaneous streams are possible.

Tving has about 6,000 original and exclusive titles as well as some 160,000 TV series, variety shows, documentaries and films from cable broadcaster JTBC and its parent company CJ ENM.

The number of subscribers for streaming services has surpassed 20 million in Korea, up 6.9 percent compared to the month before, according to market researcher WiseApp and Wise Retail’s January data.

Tving currently ranks third in the number of monthly average users (MAUs) among streaming services in the domestic market. Netflix claims the dominant market share at 39 percent with 12.37 million MAUs, followed by Coupang Play with 8.05 million and Tving with 5.51 million.

The streaming occupancy rate is also dominated by Netflix, which takes up 54.3 percent of the market share, or 88.09 million hours. Tving follows in second place with 32.48 million hours ahead of Coupang Play with 20.21 million hours.

BY LEE JAE-LIM [lee.jaelim@joongang.co.kr]