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DramaFever

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DramaFever
Type of businessSubsidiary
Founded2009; 15 years ago (2009)
Headquarters
New York City
,
United States
OwnerTime Warner[1][2]
Key peopleSeung Bak, founder & CEO
Suk Park, founder & President[3]
IndustryVideo on demand
ParentWarner Bros. Digital Networks
(Warner Bros.)
URLwww.dramafever.com
RegistrationFree & Subscription

DramaFever is a video streaming website owned by Warner Bros that offers on-demand streaming video of documentaries, movies, and TV shows with subtitles. DramaFever's content offering is both ad-supported for regular users and available in high definition for premium subscribers.

DramaFever is available on a variety of devices including iPad, iPhone, Android, and Roku.[4] The company's library of international programming is one of the largest licensed U.S. collections available online, in both English and Spanish, and comprises over 15,000 episodes from 70 content partners[5] across 12 countries.[citation needed] More recently the company has branched out into co-producing television dramas. Co-producing the 2013 Korean drama The Heirs and the 2014 drama Cantabile Tomorrow.[6][7][8] On February 23 2016 it became a subsidiary of Warner Bros., a division of Time Warner[9]

History

Built upon the feedback of drama fans, many of whom previously frequented pirated sites for Korean drama, the original site was in beta before going live on August 6, 2009.[10] The website was acquired by SoftBank.[5]

Audience

DramaFever reports that over 80% of its estimated 3.5 million monthly viewers are non-Asian. The company reports that the majority of users are young, urban and educated.[11] As of May 2015, the website had around 8 million monthly active users. Females make up 65% of viewers and among these, the 18 to 34 age range is the most significant.[5]

Additional, new Spanish and Latin American content is expected to increase viewership among Hispanic users.[citation needed]

Partnerships

In 2012, DramaFever sponsored The Supply Cup 2012, a charity soccer tournament hosted by YouTube personalities to benefit the non-profit organization The Supply, which helps build secondary schools in African slums to better provide greater possibilities for the next generation.

In 2011, Dramafever partnered with San Diego Asian Film Festival to present the first virtual on-demand Asian American film festival titled "DigiFest."[12]

In March 2010, DramaFever unveiled a partnership with Hulu.[13]

DramaFever also makes curated selections from its collection available on Netflix and iTunes. After their first week in the iTunes store, two popular Korean romantic comedies, "Boys Over Flowers" and "Heartstrings", broke the iTunes Top 200.[14]

Licensing

DramaFever has licensing deals with all three major Korean TV networks: Seoul Broadcasting System, Korean Broadcasting System, and Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation.[15] It is the first website to work with all three South Korean content providers legally and its partners represent over 60 of the top TV networks and production companies from China, Taiwan, Japan, Philippines, Singapore, Argentina and Spain.[16]

Other licensing partners include Artear, CCTV, Imagina, rtve, Sanlih E-Television, Shanghai Media Group and Telefe among others.[17]

Subscription offering

Consumers can choose between a free or premium subscription. Registered subscribers can watch limited videos for free with commercials while premium subscribers watch without interruptions and in high definition. Users can register on the site or with their Facebook login.

A premium subscription costs $4.99 a month or $49.99 a year in the United States.[18] Content from Asia is available to the U.S., Canada and Latin America. Content from Latin America and Spain are only available to U.S. and Canada users due to international licensing agreements.[19]

Recognition

On December 13, 2010 DramaFever was awarded the Korean Business of the Year Award by the Korean Creative Content Agency (KOCCA), Korean Cultural Center and Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism for its work showcasing Korean content in the U.S.[20]

DramaFever Awards

In February 2013, DramaFever launched the first "Annual DramaFever Awards" honoring films, dramas, actors and actresses of the year through subscriber voting.[21] The ceremony for the 3rd Annual DramaFever Awards was sponsored by Toyota and was held at the Hudson Theatre in New York City on February 2015.[22] The 4th Annual DramaFever Awards in 2016 received a total of 1, 889, 384 votes from users.[23]

See also

References

  1. ^ http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-warner-bros-acquires-svod-service-dramafever-20160223-story.html
  2. ^ http://deadline.com/2016/06/warner-bros-digital-networks-craig-hunegs-1201766235/
  3. ^ http://www.dramafever.com/company/media.html
  4. ^ "Do you support my device?". DramaFever. December 4, 2013. Retrieved May 3, 2014.
  5. ^ a b c J.T. Quigley (May 22, 2015). "Post-acquistion [sic], DramaFever has more muscle to spread Asian entertainment to the West". Tech In Asia. Retrieved May 22, 2015.
  6. ^ "Dramafever Set To Premiere First Original Co-production The Heirs". Hancinema. 8 October 2013. Retrieved 2014-02-03.
  7. ^ "DramaFever co-produces Tomorrow's Cantabile with KBS". DramaFever. 10 October 2014. Retrieved 2014-10-16.
  8. ^ Sun, Rebecca (10 October 2014). "DramaFever Unveils Its Second Korean Co-Production". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2014-10-16.
  9. ^ http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-warner-bros-acquires-svod-service-dramafever-20160223-story.html
  10. ^ "DramaFever Launch Party". Hyphen Magazine. August 7, 2009. Archived from the original on August 13, 2009.
  11. ^ "DramaFever Media Kit" (PDF). DramaFever. February 2013. Retrieved May 3, 2014.
  12. ^ "First-ever DigiFest begins September 1". Asia Pacific Arts. 2011-08-31.
  13. ^ Korean TV dramas find new fans, outlets with online video, DramaFever Web site delivers shows via Hulu Wailin Wong, Chicago Tribune, May 17, 2010
  14. ^ "Entertainment Heats Up Online for 50 Million U.S. Hispanics". PRNewswire. October 8, 2012. Retrieved May 3, 2014.
  15. ^ SBS dramas at DramaFever K-popped, October 11, 2009.
  16. ^ Korean TV Hulu site for U.S. New TeeVee, June 6, 2009. Lately they have not been renewing licenses for many popular and classic Korean dramas like Spring Waltz (2006), In Soon Is Pretty (2007), The Snow Queen (2006), World's Within (2008), and Runaway Plan B (2010). No explanation has been forthcoming why they are removing these classics and more.
  17. ^ [1]DramaFever: About Us
  18. ^ "DramaFever Premium". DramaFever Support Center. Retrieved 5 January 2015.
  19. ^ DramaFever FAQ DramaFever
  20. ^ 2010 DARI Awards Honor Executives & Companies for Contributions toward Advancing Korean Content in the U.S. KOCCA Official Website, December 14, 2010.
  21. ^ DramaFever Awards
  22. ^ "Announcing the winners of the Third Annual DramaFever Awards!". DramaFever.
  23. ^ "4th Annual DramaFever Awards". DramaFever.
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