Foreign drama thread (BBC4, C4's Walter Pres, Sky Arts etc)

There are many things advertised in the UK (Both UK production and Foreign) that are not successful. You can suggest shows to an audience but it doesn't mean they'll watch. The proof that Korean Media is Smaller is that it's not shown or has not been really considered by main broadcasters here and that's after a lot of effort by Various Koren production Companies and indeed South Korean Government efforts. That's not to say that it won't be successful in the future but it looks unlikely. On the other hand the European Dramas on BBC have over a million viewers. In the case of Danish Dramas they win international Awards all over the place, including Bafta's Emmys and Peabody awards. They're actually pretty mainstream,

Plus, in the UK's case, The Euro Dramas are foreign, but they're not too foreign. People can see themselves retiring to France and Italy, going to Denmark for a weekend Break. On the other hand South Korea is the other side of the world and takes them out of their comfort zone.

The Korean Film industry doesn't need the UK to be successful. In the future it may have a bigger following but it's highly unlikely to be on one of the main broadcast networks.

(By the way I do know Korean Cinema also wins loads of awards )

Same thing was said about K-dramas in the US. Nobody thought it would get popular in the US:

article 1

article 2

article 3

One Korean drama I know won an award from Europe, it was the first Asian show to won that prestigious award.



What if I was to tell you Korean language classes in the US increased for the last few years and K-dramas was one of the factor.



Well the UK has been taking a lot of interest in Korean films for the last few years.

Estimates of the Korean population in the UK is estimated to be between 8,000-20.000 people with the biggest concentration of people in New Malden.

The US has 1.7m Korean Americans.

America is a much more viable market than the UK for Korean programming which may transfer to mainstream tv.

Uh. if you didn't read the article, majority of K-dramas audience in USA are not even Asians. According to the article, 85% of Dramafever audience are non-Asians. I see a lot of non-Asian watching K-dramas on Hulu too.

The point is that you clearly don't understand how British television works in regards to commissioning, some of which has been hinted above by other posters with regards to familiarity to a UK audience.. The industry has changed where on demand services are now in a position to commission shows to a viable audience, in addition to showing content that linear tv wouldn't acquire.

If decent Canadian dramas in English and French don't get picked up by broadcasters, imagine how hard it would be for a Korean programme to get on British tv?

Well the UK is not the US. In many ways the markets are alike but in others they are worlds apart. There's a large Korean Community in the US, not so much in the UK (or europe) For example I have no Korean Friends in this part of the world (but I do listen to KBS Korean radio and have a interest in Korea, I may even be going there next year if money allows) I do have Friends from Denmark and Germany. The Germans aren't huge TV fans but the Danes I know are much like the British and Irish when it comes to TV habits. They point out Danish TV to me and I try it out. For example I don't know if Better Times was ever shown on TV in the UK but I've watched (and enjoyed it)

I'm sure it's the same in the states when Korean first and second Generation residents mix with Friends from America and around the world. They point out their TV likes and thus more would know about it there.

The UK has been taking a lot of interest in Cinema from all over the world for the last hundred years. Korean Cinema has a very small following. It might be growning, but so is the following for all types of foreign Cinema. But none of them have broken into the Mainstream. They're not talked about on a day by day basis on the papers in general, or in offices or on politics programmes. On the other hand Danish/Swedish and to a lesser extent European Programmes have made that leap.

That's very true actually. There is a lot of Decent Drama from Canada that never gets seen here.

The only Korean film I've watched was The Housemaid and again that was thanks to Netflix that I was able to discover that film. However if it was acquired by a broadcaster (more likely Film4), it'd be shown in a late night slot.

Recently I went to a film screening of Samba thanks to the UK distributor of the film, who picked it up after being shown in France last November. That's a huge gap between the release dates between France and the UK. However it was one of the lucky ones to get a cinema airing and that's only in the Arthouse ones such as Picturehouse and Curzon.

Many films I've seen that I haven't been able to watch on demand have been through Amazon.fr as there isn't a market for every single French film. Francophiles can't make a film hit alone! Amelie for example was a very lucky mainstream hit.

To be fair as well (without doubting the popularity of Korean TV and Cinema in America) Some of those Articles read more like press releases from DramaFever that proper investigative journalism. I would say the same about this side of the Atlantic when Production Companies give out material and journalists that are either too lazy, or too busy just print what they're given. Suspicions always pop up when it's a PR company saying something is popular. (After all, is this really the best Big Brother ever? )

I think that's the great thing about the Modern World, Niche products can succeed because we can actually access them. When I was growing up in Ireland RTE2 used to have CineClub on once a week. It was the only time that you'd hear French (and it was mostly French) Drama in my English speaking world. Video Recorders were just in but getting foreign Cinema or Drama was very difficult. Now it's a real choice for many people to watch anything they want from anywhere in the world. However, it's now also harder to get your voice heard when there's so much product out there.

I think for this situation it's different. The Korean companies has been pushing TV dramas (ie: showcasing, K-drama week, etc...) for a while.

I think it's possible UK TV channels could diversify their foreign TV dramas selection. I mean they can't stick to European dramas forever. The TV executives knows that K-dramas (and Asian dramas) may offer something that European dramas may not have (period dramas in K-dramas, and plots/storyline that are unique and can't be found in European dramas).



Actually, you'll be surprised. I've heard of stories of fans of K-dramas that they discovered K-dramas not by Korean-American friends but word of mouth and accidental discovery. You don't have to have a Korean-American friends to find K-dramas.

Yes, You're right the situation is different. There are a lot of Canadian Shows already on UK and Irish TV. There's a huge amount of Co productions going on Between Canadian, UK and Irish Producers. The point is that there is loads more Canadian TV (English and French) that never sees the light of Day over here. The Canadians have the contacts and a foothold in the Market but they still don't get a lot of their stuff shown. The Koreans have done showcasing for a week, as have 50 or 60 other countries in various ways. When you have to do a showcase week you know you're outside the tent, meanwhile the Scandinavians and the other Europeans (with the Canadians) are inside the tent getting some of their product on Screen. They don't have to do showcase weeks.

They can stick to European Drama forever, there's a lot of it made. Plus it's probably their 5th choice after US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand. Then there's Europe in 5th, then the rest of the world is looked at. Right now I would think that Asian production is miles behind all of these but ahead of say African Productions on Mainstream channels.