TVING Expected To Record Operating Loss Of 80 Billion Won Despite “Queen of Tears” Success

On May 28th, HeraldCorp reported that TVING may lose 80 billion won in operating profits this year. 

Accordingly, TVING’s operating loss last year was 142 billion won. By introducing advertising plans and payments for professional baseball content, the loss is expected to decrease.

TVING has recorded losses for 4 consecutive years and the biggest loss was last year. In the first quarter of 2024, TVING’s operating loss was 38.5 billion won. Despite the huge success of various original series such as “Death’s Game”, “Pyramid Game”, “Transit Love 3”, as well as “Marry My Husband” and “Queen of Tears”, co-productions with its parent company CJ ENM, TVING is still unable to avoid financial losses.

According to the industry, it is still difficult for TVING to overcome losses despite having many hit content because they invested a lot in appearance fees. As celebrities’ appearance fees increase, it is burdensome to bear the production costs.

It is known that the production cost of the 16-episode drama “Queen of Tears” was 56 billion won, which was 3.5 billion won per episode. Even with good ratings, the drama was still unprofitable due to excessively high appearance fees.

An OTT official said to the media, “In the case of top stars, we must pay them hundreds of millions of won per episode. Therefore, even if the project does well in terms of ratings, we still don’t make any profits”.

In addition, TVING spent 400 billion won to secure the rights to broadcast professional baseball content every year. However, after making professional baseball as paid content, it is not known whether the 400-billion-won investment will be profitable as the number of users is expected to decline.