Kocowa


KOCOWA is an American online video streaming website headquartered in Los Angeles as a joint venture between the three major Korean broadcast networks: Korean Broadcasting System, Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation and Seoul Broadcasting System to provide Korean entertainment including K-Dramas, K-Variety, and K-Pop to the Americas.
A subsidiary of KCP the name KOCOWA stands for Korean Content Wave. Launched in July 2017, it became the centralized content broker for existing Korean program platforms Viki, OnDemandKorea, and DramaFever.

History

Three major Korean broadcast networks, Korean Broadcasting System, Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation and Seoul Broadcasting System, consolidated their efforts to distribute content globally due to the rising demand for Korean content across the globe. In July 2017, KOCOWA launched its streaming services, making them accessible via PC, mobile, and tablet with plans to expand its streaming services to Smart TVs.

Services

KOCOWA streams a variety of Korean programs ranging from TV series such as School 2017 and The King in Love, variety shows Running Man and Infinite Challenge, and K-pop music programs including Inkigayo and Music Bank World Tour up to six hours after being broadcast in Korea.
To differ from its platform partners KOCOWA plans to provide perks and access to exclusive content including the 2017 World Tour of popular K-pop artist G-Dragon. Unlike Viki's subtitling technology that crowd-sources subtitle translations under a Creative Commons license, KOCOWA's content is translated and subtitled by a certified translation team. Content will be translated initially in English and exclusively consumed in the U.S. market with plans to expand to Spanish and French-speaking countries.

Business

KOCOWA is a subscription-based service offering a variety of plans from $0.99 per day, $6.99 per month or $69.99 annually that provides full access to its programming without ads within six hours after being broadcast in Korea. Those who opt for the advertising-based plan can access new content after 24 hours of its release.
In August 2017, Viki announced the partnership with KOCOWA which allows its Viki Pass Plus subscribers to have additional access to KOCOWA contents without separate subscription on KOCOWA