‘Korean Wave ban’ to be lifted for the first time since “My Love from the Star”? Chinese OTT, “We have no plan for K-dramas”
The law that bans the Korean Wave in China, which started to take effect in 2016, seems to continue.
On December 21st, China’s OTT platform AnhuiTV said on their official Weibo account, “The false information that Korean dramas will air next year is circulating online. We currently have no broadcasting plan (for Korean dramas).”
AnhuiTV is an OTT platform that introduced the Korean Wave in Korea as it broadcasted a number of Korean works, such as SBS’s popular drama “My Love from the Star”. However, there has been no official airing of Korean dramas for the past 6 years since “My Love from the Star” was released. However, on December 20th, AnhuiTV announced, “Thai and Korean dramas are coming soon for the first time in many years”, adding “Please let us know what drama you want to watch in the comments”. As this was officially announced to the public, people believed that the Chinese authorities had discussed the issue and predicted that the ban on the Korean Wave would be lifted soon.
However, on the next day, AnhuiTV explained through a notice, saying “AnhuiTV’s ‘Dolphin Classic Theater’ has selected and aired Thai dramas in recent years”, revealing that they had no plan for Korean drama broadcasts.
Although there has always been a “Korean Wave ban”, several Korean works have been uploaded on Chinese OTT platforms. tvN’s drama “Twenty-five Twenty-one”, “Hospital Playlist Season 1” and JTBC’s “Strong Woman Do Bong Soon” were shown in China and drew keen interest. AnhuiTV released an explanation once, but China is still paying attention to Korean content. Considering this, the Korean broadcasting industry also predicts that the way for Korean content to enter the China market will be opened in earnest.
Source: Nate
