Julia Stoll
Research expert covering TV and video media
Television industry in South Korea - statistics & facts
The television is a ubiquitous household item in South Korea; The overwhelming majority of Korean households owned televisions in 2023. Domestic brands such as Samsung and LG were the most popular choice of model, taking up over 96 percent of the market. In terms of revenue, South Korea’s broadcasting industry is largely dominated by three major national networks: KBS, MBC, and SBS. Together, they made up almost 79 percent of all broadcasting revenue in 2022. The most popular TV genres in 2021 included K-dramas, the news, and variety and entertainment shows.
The popularity of K-dramas
According to a 2023 survey, South Korean dramas, also known as K-dramas, were the favorite TV program genre of more than one in four Koreans. Outside the domestic market, K-dramas have drawn in a worldwide audience, with around 68 percent of survey respondents across 26 countries stating that the genre was popular even outside of fan circles. K-dramas are commonly considered to be one of the main drivers behind the so-called Korean wave, known as "hallyu" in Korean. While these shows are available across terrestrial and paid television channels alike, K-dramas dominate TV ratings on pay TV.Pay TV in South Korea
Nearly 93 percent of Korean households paid for TV subscriptions in 2022, with IPTV and digital cable being the most popular formats. This allowed companies offering such services to generate an average revenue of around 10.3 thousand South Korean won per user based on subscription sales. In 2022, the pay TV network tvN outperformed all other paid networks in terms of popularity, with 95 percent of the leading pay TV programs based on TV ratings being one of its drama or variety entertainment productions.
