Shares of South Korean companies that produce or distribute dramas and movies rose as China resumed streaming Korean films after a six-year ban, spurring hopes that more content will be allowed.
Film distributor and producer Showbox Corp. soared as much as 26% on Wednesday, prompting a brief interruption of trading due to large stock price fluctuations at the market open. KidariStudio Inc., a producer of online comics and other content increased by the 30% daily limit. Other media stocks such as Studio Dragon Co., CJ ENM Co., Astory Co., and ContentreeJoongAng Corp. also rose.
The resumption, if expanded, would allow Korean cultural content producers to tap into the region’s largest consumer market, potentially increasing profits and further increasing the appeal of Korea’s entertainment stocks. The country’s content producers and distributors have been highly sought after for a string of blockbusters and the growing appeal of its pop culture.
China’s regulators review content before it is allowed on online streaming platforms and it may take some time before recent series are distributed on these sites.
However, “works that are already produced may not take long and that’s why we see shares of Studio Dragon and ContentreeJoongAng trading higher,” as the two firms have many old dramas and movie titles, said Kim Hoi Jae, an analyst at Daishin Securities Co.
Tencent’s online streaming platform began distributing “Hotel By the River” in November, local media outlets including Korea Economic Daily reported earlier this month. The film, produced by independent director Hong Sang Soo in 2018, is the first Korean film to be broadcast online in China after a six-year hiatus following the deployment of a U.S. missile defense system in South Korea that created a diplomatic row between the two Asian countries.
President Yoon Suk Yeol’s office confirmed on Tuesday that China has made the concession for the online streaming service in the context of the G20 summit in Indonesia last week.
Yoon and President Xi Jinping agreed to strengthen cultural exchanges between the two countries during the summit, where Xi acknowledged that “such a disruption in exchanges benefits no one and we look forward to working toward a full recovery,” Yoon’s office said.
“Although it is a small beginning, we would like to believe that it will become a future with great importance,” Kim Eun-hye, Yoon’s press secretary, said at a briefing on Tuesday.
Source: Bloomberg
Stay Tuned with Us:
