Could the success of “Squid Game Season 2,” which is greatly anticipated, spell the end for Korean OTT platforms?
“Squid Game 2” on Netflix ushers in a new era of K-dramas, with a production budget of 100 billion won. According to reports, the lead actor Lee Jung-jae earns the highest appearance fee for a Korean actor—one million dollars, or around 1.3 billion won—per episode.
It’s well known that the worldwide smash “Squid Game” considerably increased appearance costs. With two seasons and thirteen episodes overall, Lee Jung-jae’s estimated net worth is as high as thirteen million dollars, or roughly 17.134 billion won.
Lee Jung-jae piqued fans’ attention in a YouTube content video by saying that “Squid Game Season 2” would debut in the winter and be more intriguing than Season 1. When Season 1 was released in 2021, it started the global K-content obsession. It is well known that Netflix made a whopping 1 trillion won from this popular series.
With great hopes and a 100 billion won investment, Netflix’s “Squid Game 2” season one success will not be in vain. Apart from “Squid Game,” the CEO of Netflix declared that he will increase his investments in Korean programming.
Netflix is starting to invest a significant sum of money in Korean dramas, which puts Korean OTT firms in a challenging position. The average cost of producing a drama these days is 2 billion won, compared to the previous average of 300–400 million won per episode.
Due to the fact that appearance fees make up the majority of the production budget, Korean drama producers are finding it increasingly difficult to finance their work as a result of Netflix’s increase in actor appearance fees.
As a result, Korean over-the-top companies (OTTs) like TVING and Wavve are producing less drama and more content related to sports and entertainment.
“Korean companies won’t be able to produce dramas if they demand investments and appearance fees similar to Netflix’s offers,” a representative from a domestic OTT company stated, adding that “this could lead to Netflix’s monopolization of the K-drama industry.”
