Between 6 and 7 pm on weekdays, Zing TV will broadcast Hallyu Time. It is a Hindi-dubbed episode of a Korean drama. Notably, Zing will celebrate its 25th anniversary as an Indian entertainment channel in 2022. It is among the genre’s oldest channels.
In addition to Zing, there are other channels in India that broadcast Korean programmes dubbed in regional dialects. K-dramas with Hindi dubs are available to Airtel Korean TV’s digital and DTH viewers. Also, Tamil-dubbed K-dramas are carried on Puthuyugam TV.
Zee has a Korean-content play as well. Zee Café broadcasts K-dramas in Korean with subtitles and Zindagi in Hindi with dubbing. Arirang TV only airs Korean language content. It is accessible with a DTH subscription. Korean shows can be accessed on OTT services such as MX Player, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ Hotstar, as well as Netflix India in dubbed versions.
According to Arghya Roy Chowdhary, chief channel officer at Zing, his channel is typically sampled by viewers between the ages of 15 and 30. He emphasises that Zing is not an official Hindi or English GEC. The audience can relate to Korean shows in part because of certain aspects that centre around that stage of life. Romance, humour, horror, etc., are a few examples. Since the audience spends more time watching movies and listening to music, they attempt to focus on content in and around those areas that they can identify with.
Zing features high-profile advertisers like HUL and P&G. Additionally, these companies display their ads next to Korean content. The kind of programming that should air during prime time on a television channel is carefully considered. After all, according to Chowdhary, this is the time of the day when most eyes are hooked up to screens. He adds that for the past 2-3 years they have been conducting consumer research, especially after the pandemic struck with Korean content at the back of their minds. It is well to be noted that from 2007 onwards, K-dramas gained popularity in India. However, at that time, they were widely popular in the Northeastern regions or major cities like Mumbai or Bengaluru.
When COVID halted production and the channel was unable to create original content, they focused on obtaining it. Apparently, K-dramas were at the top of their list for acquisition because of how well liked they were with viewers. He goes on to say that this influence carried over with music as well; a lot of viewers cite BTS from Korea as their favourite band. Boys Over Flowers was one of the first Korean shows to air on Zing, which was initially aired at 2:00 pm. Chowdhary observed a 100% surge in Zing’s viewership over that time period. Furthermore, he discovered that on the free channel, the time spent climbed by about 25% and on the subscription service, it increased by about 45%. One of the most popular K-dramas in India happens to be Boys Over Flowers. The Netflix release of the horror survival drama Squid Game also played a significant role in increasing global interest in Korean programming. As per the OTT giant, in the 28 days after its September 17 release, the series garnered 1.65 billion hours of viewing worldwide.
Brand Consultant, Abhimanyu Mishra from Brandfizz, says that such has been the penetration of Korean content in India that even brands have started to ride on its popularity. Past research, according to Chowdhary, shows that housewives may prefer saans-bahu serials. At the time when they were not airing Korean programming, they did consumer research and met the wife of a cab driver who was sampling Korean shows, and that’s when they knew they were on to something. When releasing a new product, advertisers target early adopters who, as per Chowdhary, are more progressive and willing to watch Korean stuff. He adds that 15-30 year olds may not have unfettered internet access and are more likely to watch it on TV in that circumstance. Nearly 50% of the Indian population happens to be below 25 and are a part of Zing’s TG. Besides that, there is another TG that consumes Zing’s content: the office-going commuters watching it on their phones. The difficulty is locating suppliers who can assist them in acquiring content, despite the fact that there is a significant library of Korean material available across genres.
