Extraordinary Attorney Woo drives KT Studio Genie's turnaround

KT Studio Genie Co., an entertainment arm of South Korea’s telecom giant KT Corp., posted its first annual profit last year, driven by the mega hit drama “Extraordinary Attorney Woo,” according to people with knowledge of the matter on Sunday.

KT Studio's ENA was the exclusive domestic TV channel for the 16-episode drama about autistic lawyer Woo. It was streamed by Netflix Inc. for global audiences.

Its last episode attracted the most viewers among its competitors aired on subscription-based TV channels at the same time. Its viewership was 17.5%.

It is rare for a domestic content provider to turn profitable just in its second year of business. In 2021, it incurred a 4.7 billion loss ($3.7 million).

Last year, KT Studio Genie's revenue surged nearly tenfold on-year to 100 billion won. Its annual profit was not immediately available.

KT Studio Genie is an intermediate holding company. It manages music streaming platform Genie Music: e-book service Millie’s Library; and web novel app KT Storywiz. It also operates a broadcast service provider SkyLife TV.

Those subsidiaries help KT Studio Genie make full use of its original content by distributing them via TV, online and mobile channels, over-the-top media services and video on-demand platforms.

Moreover, it will be able to focus on content creation, with the subsidiary companies in charge of marketing and promotional activities.

Particularly, KT adopted a one-source multi-use system, under which an original story posted on the KT Storywiz app is adapted into a drama, movie or game, as well as a spin-off content. Its affiliate Genie Music creates its original soundtracks (OST).

KT launched Studio Genie after injecting 52.8 billion won into the new arm.

It owns 90.91% of the content provider. CJ ENM Co., an entertainment behemoth, holds a 9.09% stake after it acquired a loss-making OTT platform from KT Studio Genie. 

Write to Han-Gyeol Seon at always@hankyung.com
Yeonhee Kim edited this article