During ‘2020 Content Industry Forum,’YongJae-KIM, CEO of SBS subsidiary company FormatEast, has introduced the successful case of Chinese Version ‘Running Man.’
The Broadcasting Forum of ‘2020 Content Industry Forum’ was held online on 22nd of September to prevent the spread of COVID 19, and YongJae-KIM, CEO of SBS FormatEast, gave a presentation, explaining the Chinese version of ‘Running Man’ was the success of the original IP.
He said, “I have produced entertainment shows until 2013. At that time in 2013, high-ranking officials told me to take charge of the global business and pioneer it because terrestrial broadcasters would be in estimated deficit in 2014. After the SBS Acting Awards at the end of the year 2013, I created a global business team at our headquarters in January 2014.”
He cited the Chinese version of ‘Running Man’ as an example. He continued and said, “We have co-produced the Chinese version of ‘Running Man.’ It was well received in China, resulted in a successful achievement. Yet, once the ‘HanHanRyeong (A law that bans Korean culture in China)’ broke out, we head over to Vietnam and Myanmar from the end of 2016 to early 2017 as we had to re-explore Southeast Asia. Vietnamese Running Man was also successful like Chinese Running Man. Through this experience, we have learned that the original IP, although it is an original IP of Korea, can go beyond a simple distribution to lead a huge success in the global market.
Regarding the Chinese version of ‘Running Man,’ he said, “To explain the show, there are 4 seasons in total. The production cost of season 1 was 36 billion, while that of season 4 was 100 billion won. We spent more than a blockbuster movie.” He continued by stating, “the ratings for Season 1 was 2 percent, but the rating went up by 4 percent in Season 4, gathering a huge attention. A straightforward comparison would be ‘DaeJangGeum’ with its rating of 2.6 percent. 4 percent of rating was definitely a great figure. With the success of ‘Running Man,’ the ZheJiang satellite which originally ranked third and fourth in China, has jumped to the first place in the country.”