South Korean OTT platform TVING reportedly surpasses Netflix for the 1st time in total viewing hours following Lovely Runner’s release

South Korean domestic platform TVING, after Lovely Runner's release, reportedly surpassed Netflix in terms of total usage time for the first time in the history of the OTT platform industry. On May 28, TVING released the drama's final episode starring Byeon Woo-seok and Kim Hye-yoon, which is said to have boosted the platform's viewership hours.

The platform recorded 2,500,010 hours of views, overtaking Netflix with a difference of 91,831 hours, which recorded 2,408,179 hours. On the same day, TVING reportedly saw a noteworthy rise in the Daily Active Users (DAU), 2.17 million, just 130,000 users apart from Netflix, which saw a DAU of 2.3 million.

The Daily Active Users gap recorded between the platforms is the smallest recorded gap among all South Korean native OTT platforms. Moreover, this marked the first TVING's gap narrowed down from 130K users to that of Netflix.

According to Hankyung, an official from TVING spoke about the effects of Lovely Runner on the OTT platform. He stated,

“We realized that high-quality content is our core competitiveness. This is an example that shows the possibility of competing with Netflix, which was considered an ‘insurmountable wall’, with ‘well-made content’.”

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Lovely Runner reportedly influences record-breaking viewership on the OTT platform TVING with its finale episode

Lovely Runner featuring Byeon Woo-seok, Kim Hye-yoon, Song Geon-hee, Lee Seung-hub of N.flying, and many more, aired between April 8 and May 28 on tvN channel. TVING signed a contract with tvN to air the Monday- Tuesday show exclusively on the platform.

Lovely Runner topped the domestic real-time OTT ranking throughout its airing period as the most-watched K-drama. On May 28, the time slip rom-com drama with the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) league broadcast reportedly played a pivotal role in topping the viewing hour's list of the OTT platforms.

It was reportedly selected as the content that performed better than the average viewership ratings in terms of popularity. Furthermore, in terms of unique numbers of visitors, the show recorded 1.6 billion minutes of total viewing time. This viewing time is determined through the combination of the real-time channel broadcast (tvN) and the show's Video-on-demand (TVING) release.

With episode 16, the show recorded 5.8 percent nationwide viewership ratings on average, according to Nielsen Korea. This week, Lovely Runner also topped the TV-OTT Topicality Survey in the drama category. Meanwhile, Byeon Woo-seok also topped the Topicality Survey as the top performer in the drama and non-drama categories with his appearance on the variety show You Quiz on the Block.

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About Lovely Runner

The drama follows the story of a fan girl Im Sol played by Kim Hye-yoon and her favorite idol Ryu Sun-jae depicted by Byeon Woo-seok. The romance drama is written by screenwriter Lee Si-eun and helmed by directors Yoon Jong-ho and Kim Tae-yeop. It is adapted from a web novel known as Tomorrow's Best, illustrated by author Doong Doong.

Ryu Sun-jae is a popular idol who ends up losing his life turning Im Sol's life upside down. Im Sol gets a golden opportunity to turn back time to save her bias, she does her best to avoid events that could lead Ryu Sun-jae to his death in The present.

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Besides TVING, Lovely Runner is available on Viu and Viki in limited regions for international viewers. The show is also available on platforms like U-Next in Japan and Vidio in Indonesia.