Merger Backlash: Tving and Wavve’s OTT Union Faces Unexpected Opposition
In the domestic OTT (Over The Top) market, nearly a year has passed since the merger of Tving and Wavve, which was used as a bargaining chip to contain Netflix, was officially launched. However, it is reported that there is an unexpected risk of opposing the merger.
It is reported that during the merger process, several places will express opposition. First, the voting rights of Wavve’s three major shareholders, terrestrial television stations, are somewhat complicated due to board issues and other issues. They each hold 19.8% of Wavve’s shares.
Next is SSL Central, the content production company of Central Group, which holds shares in Tving. It is speculated that the company, which owns more than 10% of the shares, has been advancing the listing plan alone, so there were once rumors that the merger ratio was unreasonable, but the SLL Center countered, “There is no factual basis.”
As the merger deadline approaches, rival company Netflix is also accused of being a culprit. It was pointed out that this behavior hinders consolidation as the content of terrestrial waves is increased and manpower is sought from TVING and others.
In the industry, SK Square and CJ ENM, the parent companies of Wavve and Tving, have successively staged ridiculous farces as the “mafia” opposed to the merger.
In this way, the mafia game of identifying each other continued, and eventually the “good citizen” role-playing began. On the 28th, according to media and cultural information industry reports, Wavve’s three major terrestrial TV stations KBS, MBC, and SBS, which are major shareholders, have reached an agreement to merge with Tving.
It is reported that during this process, Tving’s major shareholder KT has not yet approved the merger. As TVING absorbs and merges KT’s OTT service quarter in 2022, KT subsidiary Studio Genie holds 13.5% of TVING shares.
사진확대 Domestic OTT TVING·WAVE, merged to promote CG. yonhap news agency As for the reason why KT does not agree with the merger, industry analysts say that it is because they are worried about the impact on the company’s IPTV business.
Because as OTT becomes the center of media trends, IPTV businesses such as KT are under threat along with public television stations.
According to KT Enterprise Public Information (IR), the number of IPTV users in the second quarter of this year was 9.423 million, a slight decrease from 9.47 million a year ago, and growth is slowing down.
A person in the media industry pointed out, “CJ Group and SK Group are engaged in the cinema CGV business and IPTV (SK Broadband) business respectively. Therefore, if the OTT industry develops, it will be affected to a certain extent. However, in order to adapt to changes in media trends, we will look at the overall situation We all agreed to the merger, but KT insisted on its own interests.”
It is reported that as long as KT approves the merger, shareholders from both parties will immediately sign a formal contract. Since then, some people have predicted that if the merger review process of the Fair Trade Commission is passed, the merger legal person will be established in the first half of next year.
Last year, Tving and Wavve’s operating losses were 142 billion won and 79.1 billion won respectively, but by achieving economies of scale through mergers and exclusively providing public television content, they are expected to try to differentiate themselves from global OTT platforms.
On the 23rd of this month, a Korean OTT Forum seminar hosted by Kim Woo-young, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea’s National Assembly Science, Technology, Information, Broadcasting and Communications Committee, was held. At the meeting, Lu Changxi, director of the Digital Industry Policy Research Institute, said: “If there is no domestic platform that is competitive in the world market, the dependence on global operators such as Netflix will inevitably increase.”
At the same time, he also emphasized: “The merger of Tving and Wavve will be an opportunity for the birth of OTT business players that will substantially promote globalization in our country.”