TVING’s Operating Loss Expected To Reach 80 Billion Won Despite Success of “Queen of Tears”

On May 28th, HeraldCorp reported that TVING is projected to experience a loss of 80 billion won in operating profits this year.

As a result, TVING incurred an operating loss of 142 billion won in the previous year. However, with the implementation of advertising strategies and the addition of payment options for professional baseball content, the company anticipates a decrease in losses.

Despite the success of its parent company CJ ENM’s co-productions such as “Death’s Game”, “Pyramid Game”, “Transit Love 2″and “Queen of Tears”, TVING has continued to experience financial losses for the past 4 years with the biggest loss being recorded last year. In the first quarter of 2024, TVING’s operating loss was 38.5 billion won. Original series like “Death’s Game”, “Pyramid Game”, “Transit Love 3”, “Marry My Husband”and “Queen of Tears”have received widespread acclaim, but have not been enough to turn the company’s financial situation around.

Despite having numerous successful content, TVING continues to struggle with overcoming financial losses due to their heavy investment in appearance fees. With the rising cost of celebrity appearances, the production expenses have become increasingly burdensome for the company.

Despite having good ratings, the drama “Queen of Tears”was unable to turn a profit due to the excessively high appearance fees, despite the known production cost of 56 billion won, which equates to 3.5 billion won per episode.

According to an OTT official, top stars demand hundreds of millions of won per episode, making it difficult for the company to turn a profit even if a project is successful in terms of ratings.

TVING has also invested 400 billion won annually to obtain the rights to broadcast professional baseball content. However, as professional baseball has now become paid content, it is uncertain whether this large investment will yield profits due to the expected decrease in the number of users.