Korean soap operas in Eastern Europe

By Korea.net Honorary Reporter Brice Longnos

Photo = Brice Longnos

In the face of the popularity of Latin American telenovelas and, more recently, Turkish dramas across much of Eastern Europe, Korean soap operas have now somehow managed to carve some space for themselves on local television channels. Not much, mind you, but more opportunities are out there.

Hungary was the first country to bring Korean dramas to the small screen, with negotiations between Hungarian national broadcaster Magyar Televizio (MTVA) and KBS and MBC reported as early as June 2006. A Budapest-based company named Samma International was supposedly trying to distribute "Winter Sonata" (겨울연가) (KBS, 2002) across Eastern Europe (1). Eventually, MTVA aired "Jewel in the Palace" (대장금) (MBC, 2003) on M1 from March 10 to 29, 2008, every weekday at 10 a.m. Audience ratings were spectacular, ranging between 30 and 37 percent per episode. That's about 220,000 to 360,000 viewers per episode. This lead the channel to move the show to a primetime slot for a rebroadcast between Aug. 25 and Nov. 25, 2008. Although no audience figures have yet been published, a broadcast in such a slot would expose the show to about 2 to 3 million viewers per episode. (Hungary has a population of about 10 million people. (2)) "Jewel in the Palace" was shown again on M1 between Jan. 4 and March 19, 2010.

Such a resounding success opened the door for further Korean TV shows. Next came "Queen Seondeok" (선덕여왕) (MBC, 2009) that aired on M1 on weekdays at 8:30 p.m. between Oct. 27, 2010, and Jan. 26, 2011. It also aired on M2 between Oct. 27, 2010, and Jan. 27, 2011. A re-run took place starting April 18, 2011.

MTVA continued airing historical soap operas, such as "Dong Yi" (동이) (MBC, 2010) on M1 between Feb. 28 and March 25, 2011, and on M2 between March 1 and 26, 2011. It aired "Lee San, Wind of the Palace" (이산) (MBC, 2007) on M1 and M2 between July and December 2012. It would also seem that the cooking-themed soap opera "Pasta" (파스타) (MBC, 2010) was shown on M1 and M2 in 2012 (3).

The second Eastern European country to embrace Korean soap operas was Romania, again through its public broadcaster, Televiziunea Romana (TVR). It all started with the broadcast of "Jewel in the Palace" on TVR1 in July 2009 (4), becoming the third most-watched program in that timeslot nationally (5). Following that success, TVR1 dedicated a slot called the “Korean Hour” for such Korean historical soap operas (6). The dramas aired included "Queen Seondeok,"  "Lee San, Wind of the Palace," "Damo" (조선 여형사 다모) (MBC, 2003), "Dong Yi," "Jumong" (삼한지-주몽) (MBC, 2006-2007), "Hur Jun" (허준) (MBC, 1999-2000), "Kim Suro, the Iron King" (김수로) (MBC, 2010), "Sangdo, Merchant of Joseon" (상도) (MBC, 2001) and "Kingdom of the Winds" (바람의 나라) (KBS, 2008). We should mention that airings of "Lee San, Wind of the Palace" regularly attracted over 500,000 viewers in primetime (4), and the fact that Korean historical soap operas often achieved some of the best audience ratings nationally (5). More recently, TVR1 aired "Ja Myung Go" (자명고) (KST, 2009) on TVR 1 in September 2014.

From there, a number of other broadcasters got interested and began to reflect this appetite for Korean TV shows. The first Korean TV Content Showcase was organized in Sofia on Nov. 29, 2011 (7).

Commercial broadcasters Antenna Group and ABC Plus Media soon joined in. ABC Plus Media showed an interest in action period dramas. It aired "Emperor of the Sea" (해신) (KBS, 2004-2005), "The Slave Hunters" (추노) (KBS, 2010) and "Dae Jo Yeong" (대조영) (KBS, 2006-2007) on two of its channels, and then "Empress Cheonchu" (천추태후) (KBS, 2009) on its channel N24 (8). Starting in 2013 with "Take Care of Us, Captain" (부탁해요 캡틴) (SBS, 2012) (9), Antenna's Euforia Lifestyle TV channel, now known as the Happy Channel, became home to Korean soap operas in Romania. Since then, it has aired them twice a week, including: "New Tales of Gisaeng" (신기생뎐) (SBS, 2011), "49 Days" (49일) (SBS, 2011) and even "Boys Over Flowers" (꽃보다 남자) (KBS, 2009) (10) starting Oct. 12, 2011; "Secret" (비밀) (MBC, 2000) starting in March 2014 (11); "Hotel King" (호텔킹) (MBC, 2014) (12), "Angel Eyes" (엔젤 아이즈) (SBS, 2014) and "King of Ambition" (야왕) (SBS, 2013) starting July 12, 2013 (13); "Beloved" (친애하는 당신에게) (JTBC, 2012) starting Oct. 9, 2014 (14); "Tears of Heaven" (천국의 눈물) (MBN, 2014) starting Oct. 17, 2014 (15); and, more recently, "Empress Ki" (기황후) (MBC, 2013) starting July 16, 2016, and "Seoyoung, My Daughter" (내 딸 서영이) (KBS, 2012) starting July 15, 2016 (16). PRO TV has also shown an interest, but has mainly focused on movies rather than TV shows (17).

The word of such successful results spread to neighboring countries, with program buyers at channels in Bulgaria and Ukraine now taking Korean TV shows into consideration. Notably, we can mention the channel Diema Family, owned by Nova Broadcasting and the Modern Times Group, airing "Loving You a Thousand Times" (천만번 사랑해) (SBS, 2009) starting February 2011 in Bulgaria (18), and apparently "Protect The Boss" (보스를 지켜라) (SBS, 2011) on Kanal Ukrainia in 2012 (19). SBS also said it had sold "City Hunter" (시티헌터) (2011) to a channel in Bulgaria in May 2011 (20), as well as "All In" (올인) (2003) to a channel in Ukraine (21), but we have no second-party information about possible broadcast dates. The same thing is true for "Damo," which has apparently been sold to a distributor in Ukraine (22). Belarus was also influenced by the successes seen in the Romanian TV market, and channels there will possibly broadcast Korean TV shows on one or several of the national broadcaster there, most likely Belarus 2 (23), to celebrate the 20th anniversary of its diplomatic relationship with Korea.

With the conflict over the invasion of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula by Russia, Ukrainian television channels have progressively been removing imported Russian TV shows from their programs. On June 11, 2015, Yuriy Artemenko, chairman of  the National Council of Television and Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine (NRADA), surprisingly announced that Ukrainian broadcasters would be filling the gap with Korean TV shows. Meanwhile, Kanal Ukrainia has also been very active in adapting scripted formats of Korean TV shows, starting with "Protect The Boss" in 2013 (24) and following with "Ice Adonis" (노란 복수초) (TVN, 2012) in 2015 (25).

We should not forget Poland, which was in the game early on, through the relatively small male-skewed commercial broadcaster Tele 5 which aired "The Slave Hunters" starting Oct. 4, 2010 (26), and "Iris" (아이리스) (KBS, 2009) between May 9 and June 3, 2011, every day at 6:15 p.m. (27) (28). However, only recently did Korean TV shows come under mainstream attention, with public broadcaster Telewizja Polska (TVP) scheduling "Empress Ki" on its second largest channel, TVP2, between Nov. 9, 2015, and Feb. 25, 2016, on weekdays at 5:05 p.m. (29) (30).

As for Russia, despite the launch of Arirang TV there in 2013 (31), it doesn't seem there have been any Korean TV shows broadcast on television there. However, since at least 2007, Russian producers have been adapting Korean scripted formats into local drama series, such as with "Queen of the Game" (게임의 여왕) (SBS, 2006) and "War of Money" (쩐의 전쟁) (SBS, 2007) in 2007 (32) and, more recently, "Protect The Boss" in 2012 (33). However, it appears that Russia was among several Eastern and Central European countries -- alongside Poland, Romania and Austria -- to have acquired broadcast rights for "Descendants of the Sun" ( 태양의 후예) (KBS, 2016) (34).

Let's see whether it actually airs there or if this is just another remake.

wisdom117@korea.kr

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