Netflix’s approach to kdramas has changed, and it’s made them everyone’s least favorite kdrama delivery vehicle. I discussed this a bit in episode #37 of our podcast, but I’ve a few more details now.
Last we spoke, the biggest thing Netflix had going on in relation to kdramas was a few decent titles, a lot of mediocre ones, and the advantage of being a service with no ads that almost everyone already has. Since then, Netflix has decided to get into the game in a much bigger way. Suddenly it started offering more famous dramas. Then a big shoe dropped: they started getting exclusive U.S. and even sometimes international distribution rights. In one case – that of Kingdom, a Joseon-era zombie feature that has yet to air – they pulled a Dramafever and invested directly into the production before it started.
None of this is that big of a deal. It’s a pain that there’s yet another site on the list that kdrama aficionados need a subscription to if they want to watch some of the most buzzed about dramas of the year. But like I mentioned before, almost everyone already has a Netflix subscription, so it’s much preferable to a network like HBO or Starz, or even Hulu, getting into the game.
Why even buy exclusive rights to a show as anticipated as Age of Youth 2 only to toss it in a drawer for six months?
However, one shoe was left hanging, and then it too dropped: Netflix bought exclusive international rights to some very anticipated dramas, but when they started airing in Korea, we heard nothing but crickets from Netflix. In short: Netflix owned the streaming rights to a popular kdrama, but didn’t release it.
The two most infamous cases have occurred in the past twelve months: Age of Youth 2 in 2017, and now all over again with Pretty Noona Who Buys Me Food (marketed internationally as Something in the Rain). The also-anticipated Live might now be a Netflix exclusive as well. Two (or three) hot dramas with built-in fanbases based on prior seasons or the team’s previous work. Age of Youth 2 started airing in August and wrapped at the beginning of October. That entire time the show wasn’t available anywhere (legally) online for English-speaking fans. OnDemandKorea had it, but with no subtitles.
A month or so after the show finished airing it was up on Netflix, but just in the UK and some other countries. It still wasn’t available in the United States. It didn’t show up until March 2018, when it was dropped quietly with little fanfare. It almost felt like a distraction, or an attempt at appeasement, over the anger that was brewing over Pretty Noona. Here was an equally, if not more, anticipated drama, at least amongst English-speaking kdrama fandom, that Netflix yet again scooped up the exclusive rights to. At this point everyone was bracing themselves, and fears were realized: the show started airing, yet again without a peep from Netflix.
There’s a rumor going around that Pretty Noona will go up on Netflix in late May, a week or two after it finishes airing in Korea. This mirrors other dramas like Prison Playbook which Netflix bought the exclusive rights to and released soon after it finished airing. For a viewer like me, who only watches kdramas after they finish airing, this isn’t that big of a deal. But there are two salient facts: 1) the majority of kdrama fandom live watches, and 2) with highly anticipated shows, most post-watchers (including myself) are chomping at the bit for a show to finish so they can watch, so any delays aren’t appreciated.
I’m gutted that I don’t know when for sure I’ll be able to see all these heart eyes and puppy eyes.
Let’s look more closely at the second point first. The biggest sin Netflix is committing in relation to this point is that they’re not announcing when they’ll release a drama. They snatch up the exclusive rights to a show, then sit on it – in the most egregious case, for months – without a peep as to whether or not anyone will ever get to see it, and if so, when. That’s what’s crazy about the Age of Youth 2 nonsense, is that as the months dragged by and it was available elsewhere but not Stateside, it led people to wonder if it would ever be released. That’s why I’m feeling so jumpy about Pretty Noona despite the fact that it’ll probably be on Netflix right around the time I want to watch it: because we don’t actually know. How hard is it to announce when you’ll release the show? Just send a press release to Soompi or Dramabeans. Everyone will see it.
Now I know this isn’t new for Netflix: they didn’t announce until the last minute when The Punisher was going to drop, for example. But Punisher was a Netflix Original (despite what the service itself likes to call “Netflix Originals,” I only use the term to indicate a show produced by Netflix and thus unique and exclusive worldwide to the service). It wasn’t available anywhere, for anyone, until Netflix released it. And because it was an in-house production, it’s possible it wasn’t done until close to its release announcement (I don’t really know anything about The Punisher so if that isn’t true, please excuse me). But in the case of Age of Youth 2 and other kdramas, we know the show is done and some other people are watching it. The holdup is thus worse given Netflix’s refusal to acknowledge the show’s existence other than to prevent people from accessing it.
Which brings us to the first point. English-speaking kdrama fandom is already an active, developed entity (and I assume other kdrama fandoms outside Korea are experiencing similar shenanigans, but I can only speak to the English-speaking side’s experience). Most participants live watch. And unlike active online fandoms for shows or films with a larger general audience, active kdrama fandom is just about the only English-speaking audience watching.
Netflix might do things differently; it might want to not announce when any of its original or exclusive shows will drop until right before they do, if even then. But it’s just bad sense to wander into an already established and thriving ecosystem and insist it change to suit your rules, especially since the established group is the only one impacted. Netflix has shown they don’t have to approach dramas this way: they shared the rights to Hwayugi/A Korean Odyssey, another highly anticipated show, with Viki, and everyone was happy (except about how Hwayugi ended, but that’s another story).
Kdrama fans begging Netflix for any word on the shows it bought.
Of course there’s a gigantic audience for kdramas beyond Korea that dwarfs the size of English-speaking fandom. In many cases fans in other countries are getting the shows sooner, or as they air, either on their local stations or legally online, as their countries have different distribution deals. It seems that Netflix might be making some episodes of Pretty Noona available online in other countries.
Which is why I’m not asking that the U.S. get first kdrama access after Korea. The audience isn’t as big here, and even if it were, it’s problematic, to say the least, to expect the U.S. to always come first. My ideal would be that international audiences all get kdramas at around the same time, as soon as possible after episodes air in Korea. But more reasonably, all I’d really ask is that if Netflix holds off on releasing a drama until it’s finished airing, they announce that they’re doing so with a release date. It can’t be hard to send out a quick press announcement to some big Hallyu sites.
If people aren’t being asked to wait an unreasonable amount of time, many will wait. But if we’re made to wait a while – or especially if we must wait without knowing when we’re waiting for – people are going to pirate it. That’s just how it is. Trying to force viewers entrenched in doing things one way to do them another way is going to be a difficult battle, and more people are going to go elsewhere rather than change their viewing habits. Netflix’s best shot at getting people to wait for when it wants to release a show is to not ask them to wait long, and give them a clear date for a countdown.
At this point, all Netflix is doing is souring its reputation among kdrama customers. They can’t have high numbers of Netflix users who casually click on kdramas while browsing. So why anger the base they’re supposedly appealing to with their greater kdrama investment? Especially because it’s not like Netflix has to do things this way in order to pull in more casual viewers to their kdrama content. If anything, it might make any semi- but not fully-invested viewers stop caring and forget by the time the show’s actually available. None of the actual kdrama customers want this. At this point, there’s an element of dread when each new intriguing drama is announced, because we all fear Netflix getting its claws into it.
Netflix is making all of its customers who love kdramas hate their service. It needs to change its approach, fast.
Are you as upset as I am about Netflix’s kdrama games? Think I’m crazy or complain too much? Or are there any sources of info on Netflix’s release schedule that I’ve missed? Comment below with your thoughts!
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With the closing of Dramafever, the cost of dramas going up and China boycotting Kdramas, the Kdrama space is getting smaller. We can all just go to the free sites, but honestly, I think I would prefer to pay my $8 a month for a premium service. Kocowa is there but does not provide dramas from Korean subscription services. Viki is now, by far, the best subscription service but I always used Dramafever as a backup, especially in the last year. As you say, “Life” and “Live” as well as others were bought by Netflix, then held until the series in Korea were completely finished. Maybe they got the rights cheaper that way. This may all be a preview to the new reality that Kdramas are way more popular (good news) but now we may have to pay more for the subscriptions (bad news). However, we’ve all heard the horror stories about how the dramas push the actors and staff with super long hours and crushing deadlines. Maybe, in this sense, they are now having to pay more to their actors and do things like prerecord their dramas which is driving up the cost.
Anyway, it’s super disappointing that Netflix is creating this dumb problem, delaying the broadcast of some of the top dramas! Super lame. I know AT&T is supposed to relaunch Dramafever combining it with HBO and other sites but given how sudden and bizarre their closing of Dramafever was, I’m not inclined to consider their yet to be announced supersite. Please let me know if there are any other new or soon to be relased subscriptions sites.
I agree 100% with everything you just said. It definitely feels like the golden age, when we could get basically all the dramas from one site for free (if we were willing to watch ads) is over. I definitely don’t want to have to get tons of different subscriptions just to watch all the latest dramas. In some ways the closing of dramafever might aid that, because I am hoping that dramafever exclusives will now pop up on Viki. I am in total and utter agreement with you that I refuse to pay a subscription to whatever at&t’s new site is supposed to be, just because we can see how they treated their customers, and I will not give them any more of my money.
I will say, to defend Netflix, that more recently from when this article was written, they did start live airing some of their dramas. Meteor Garden I think had episodes put up weekly closer in time with when they aired, and I want to say I heard some of their other dramas were doing the same. So fingers crossed that if Netflix gets more dramas it will continue to live air, bc it’s a totally acceptable alternative to me, since I like their other offerings as well.
Unfortunately, I don’t know of any other kdrama subscription sites as of yet that either you haven’t mentioned, or that aren’t mentioned in the article. Hulu has some dramas but not really anything new. Kocowa, which you mentioned, has some new dramas, including a few that were just on Dramafever and not Viki (like Terius Behind Me). But Kocowa is a bit more expensive than Dramafever. There’s also On Demand Korea, but it doesn’t seem to have anything big that, at the moment, Viki doesn’t also have, but it’s worth looking there if there are specific dramas you’re trying to find. Amazon Prime actually has some dramas too, but a lto of the dramas it lists are actually through a Dramafever subscription, so if you try to get the dramafever free trial they mention and stream those dramas, it then gives you a “cannot be played at this time” error message (I tested this yesterday with their listing for 100 days my prince). They have a few older dramas on Amazon Prime that are on its own service, so if you have prime and, again, are looking for specific dramas, you could try there. YouTube seems to be getting into the kdrama game as well (whyyyyy *sobs*), but so far it looks like they will only be offering one exclusive drama of their own. Our site’s other kdrama enthusiast, Tatiana, wrote an article about it here:
https://www.withanaccent.com/2018/10/02/youtube-releases-music-video-for-new-korean-drama-top-management/
For the moment, my biggest piece of advice would be that if there’s a particular device that you use to watch dramas on, like a fire tv, apple tv, samsung smart tv, etc, try searching their appstore for korean dramas. Some of the big Korean networks like MBC or SBS sometimes have their own apps for these devices with drama offerings, so it’s worth a look.
I agree with you that Viki has always been, and will continue to be, my favorite streaming site. My current plans are to watch a recentish drama on Viki (The Undateables; I was about to watch 17 Again, but that was on dramafever. Though it is also on kocowa, but only with a subscription), and wait for the dust to settle in a week or two. Then we’ll see what happens, and I might do an article then, if we possibly have any more information.
Thank you so much for the comment! Like I said, I’m going to wait a bit for the dust to settle (it’s not like we really have any info right now anyway), and then in a bit try to update everyone with what is going on!
Hi – great article and a good read. I googled for information on K-dramas and Netflix and found this. I only recently discovered K-dramas after Netflix suggested Black to me based on my viewing habits (not sure what those viewing habits were, but they weren’t other K-dramas). Fast forward a few weeks and I’m thoroughly hooked and thanks to recs on Dramabeans, and discovering a whole new world in the process, have several other dramas on my watchlist – actually completely ditched many US shows now as they look pale in comparison – but that I guess all that is another story. I guess I am that casual viewer who stumbled on to K-dramas, but stayed to get hooked. Hopefully more people like me will follow and fall in love as I did.
Everything you’ve said above seems to point to Netflix ploughing into the K-drama market without really thinking about what makes it tick and what gives it the buzz it has. I appreciate that Netflix as a corporate entity has different goals and concerns to fandom, but they should take time to appreciate a huge part of what makes K-dramas so very special and feeds their increasing popularity in western culture. I wish Netflix would allow me to customise its dashboard so I can curate a K-drama addiction. (you can create alternative profiles, but that doesn’t really work how I mean). Like you argue, Netflix seems to dump these shows out without fanfare. I can only conclude that Netflix don’t much care. They have heard about the popularity of K-drama and simply grabbed it and forced it into their delivery platform without thinking about how or what that popularity came about.
Thank you so much for the comment! I really appreciate it. If you ever want kdrama recs, I’ve got a ton. I’ve seen many, many kdramas, and so could cater to whatever your interests are. I love dramabeans too; it really is such a great site for when you’re starting out, have found that whole new world, are looking for that community, etc.
Anyway, I do want to say that since I wrote this article, Netflix has been doing better with kdramas. It’s like they heard us, which is crazy (but good) to me. I know with Meteor Garden (which is a cdrama, not a kdrama, but the same community was watching it), Mr. Sunshine, and other recent kdrama (and asian dramas) that they’ve had the rights to, they did put episodes up weekly as the episodes aired in their originating countries. So I’m really, really happy about that. And with the demise of Dramafever, I am honestly rooting for Netflix. I’d like either Viki (my top choice, always) or Netflix to get the rights that Dramafever had, rather than having to purchase yet another streaming service.
Thank you for the reply. I can’t argue with the quality of Netflix to be fair. The 1080P picture quality is rock solid and leaves Viki in the dust – not to mention the interface being head and shoulders above. This wasn’t helped by the fact that I realized that the Viki App (I watch on Firestick) is actually worse quality than its desktop Viki site – so I’ve got around that little problem by HDMI laptop to TV. Not the ideal solution. Also, this is the ONLY way to watch some Viki content (Splash Splash Love can only be watched on desktop site here in the UK and not via the app. Ridiculous.)
Currently I’m watching Goblin on Viki, along with 30 but 17, Mama Fairy and The Smile Has Left Your Eyes as they air. On Netlix I’m watching Healer (stunning drama!!!) with Mr. Sunshine next. The Netflix app is also great as I can download to watch an episode during work breaks, something that Viki can’t do yet.
So both have plusses and minuses – Viki for it’s single-minded dedication to Asian drama and Netflix for it’s next level quality.
Like you, I’m hoping that one of the two services get’s most of the rights (I really want to watch Miss Hammurabi as I’m slightly in love with Go Ara!), and I really don’t want another streaming service, although I have seen some shows be across platforms (isn’t Strong Woman Bong Soon on Netflix and Viki as I recall?).
I had problems with the Viki app on the firetv at first too. Mine was that I was streaming on it before I had a viki account, then I had a viki account, but it never upgraded me to the higher level of streaming quality you get when you have an account. I had to go in and clear the cache data on the firetv for it to recognize that. I don’t know if that’s the issue you’re having, but in case it was, I thought I’d give you the tip.
Healer is the best! Healer is my top 3 favorite drama of all time. It’s on netflix now? Oh, or maybe it is in the UK. Still, I love Healer! Fortunately for dramaland, not all the dramas on sites like Viki or Netflix (or when Dramafever existed…) are exclusives, so that’s why sometimes you’ll see them on more than one platform. I prefer Viki’s subtitles, so if a drama’s on Viki, that’s always where I watch it.
I am waiting around QUITE impatiently for all of dramafever’s exclusives to show up somewhere…so far, no dice. I hate it. At least soon all of its most recent exclusives will be over, so from here on out hopefully the sites getting rights will all be ones we can actually use.
There’s an even bigger impact felt by us U. S. fans when Netflix holds a drama – we go to international Korean-American blogs to find out about cultural things or colloquialisms that make scenes not make sense to us. If the blogger didn’t address the issue in her blog, we ask questions of the blogger and fellow fans. Since the blogger usually doesn’t need subtitles, then she/he (and fans that have already watched) has already moved on to the next drama and that portion of the blog is dead. There goes your hope of ever finding out whatever you were confused about or questioning.
And I forgot to Manton the sense of community that comes with discussing a show during its live broadcast because for most western watchers of Kdrama, there are no friends who also watch that they can discuss their favorite shows with.
Thank you for the comments! You are absolutely right about the community aspect as well. I know I’m a bit out of the norm that I don’t live watch, I prefer to binge dramas once they’re over, so I’m often a step removed from the instantaneous nature of the community. But that is a huge part of english speaking kdrama fandom online, and what’s so baffling to me that Netflix didn’t pick up on it, since that’s basically the only audience they’re trying to court by offering kdramas.
However, since I wrote this post, it’s like Netflix finally heard us somehow, and they have been doing better at putting episodes up right around the time they air in Korea. They did that with Meteor Garden, Mr. Sunshine, and some others I think (I’ve not been personally that interested in any of netflix’s exclusives, other than something in the rain, which did drop all at once in may), so hopefully that’s what they’ll continue to do. With the sudden demise of dramafever, I would honestly rather Netflix get the rights to more kdramas and put them up as they air, like they did with Mr. Sunshine and others, than have to pay for yet another new streaming site.
Thank you again so much for reading and especially for your excellent additional points!
They have the same problem with anime. They really expect two fandoms already accustomed to simulcast to wait months for the show to become available. It’s not going to happen
Does anyone else dislike Netflix’s translation of dramas?! I hear someone adressing someone else with a title but I read someone calling someone else’s name, or I head “Kim Se Jong” but read “Sejong Kim” it’s so distracting to me I have to pause and decipher the situation. I understand when you’re new it’s not easy and I appreciate fansubbers putting explainations between brackets in the first episode(s) but once you understand it, you’re good but this hyper translation keeps distracting me, am I the only one?!
No, I agree, it’s definitely jarring when they do stuff like that. Especially with the names: just do it in the correct order, not the western order! Translation can be really tricky though, and while I do prefer Viki’s translations that usually try to explain things a bit more, but at the same time I don’t really envy the position of a translator having to make these decisions. So I’m still on Team Viki having the best subs, but I will say that overall, Netflix’s have improved, and I hope they continue to.
Aaah, thank you, I wanted to write this! I just HATE how they ignore the titles, I know that many people don’t know about them and it is easier for them, and “This is the official translating”, but waaah! I mean come on, when in Hwayugi, the older looking director of the big company meets Son Oh-Gong, and he use the “Hyung-nim” title, it is a big WTF moment, and this one title adds so much to the whole picture!
And the other differences: I know that they change songs because of license, but when I watched She Was Pretty for the first time, it was on a streaming site, and I liked it really much. Now we started to watch it on Netflix, because of the subscription, and I realized that the entire scene was cut out where they were sitting in the car and the guy sang I love you baby totally out of pitch. They changed the song, and the title later made no sense either, and now I am sooo mad. I mean if we PAY for Netflix, it should be good, but for me, it is just too bitter when I realize how much fun I miss because of these translating issues and music changing and cutting out entire scenes :'(
It’s 2021 now and honestly I think the translations might be getting worse. I learned a lot of Korean watching on viki since they tend to have pretty literal translations with a lot of context added and don’t translate titles… The amount of times a sentence is entirely different in the sub vs what they’re saying is really frustrating. I hate that Netflix has taken over distribution of virtually all the high profile series in the US. They are getting it wrong in so many ways and honestly I’m about to start pirating out of spite at this point.
More than half of the Kdramas in Netflix are garbage, Netflix doesn’t care about quality but quantity and the translations from Korean to Spanish are just terrible. I’ve seen better kdramas on Youtube with much better translations.