Posted on 12/31/2014 6:18:41 PM PST by goldstategop
Primetime TV Shows That Flopped Find International Success On Viki
As a global TV site, Viki doesn’t just offer subtitles to make popular TV shows understandable, it’s now helping shows that don’t do well in their home countries capture loyal fans from unsuspecting places in the world. Filipino shows, for example, are finding success in Japan. When the Japanese film, “Tragedy of W” first aired in 1984, it flopped in its home country, but was a hit once it appeared on Viki—particularly in Europe. Similarly, the Korean TV show, “Playful Kiss,” didn’t take off in Korea initially, but is now available in nearly 60 languages.
The first show the site added was, “Boys Over Flowers,” a wildly popular drama from South Korea, where its entertainment industry continues to boom. Now, some of the fastest-growing genres come from Europe, South East Asia, Thailand and Turkey.
Viki has become a matchmaker for TV shows and films that haven’t found their audiences yet while giving them an infinite shelf life. The site’s model presents producers and broadcasters everywhere with the proposition that they can spend more money to make better shows and still be able to distribute them to the rest of the world. The site primarily aims to secure high value content, which includes hundreds of shows that don’t get picked up by television broadcasters. ...
Viki, which is a play on the words “video,” and “wiki,” because of its crowdsourcing model for subtitling videos, is the third largest global TV site behind YouTube and Hulu. Since licensing in the home market would mean competing against TV site giants, Viki licenses content to the rest of the world. Japanese content doesn’t play in Japan, and Korean content doesn’t play in Korea. It does, however, curate global content on Netflix and Hulu.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Why?
So did I. I just kept wishing that Buddy Ebsen would break out into a soft shoe....just ONCE.
American actresses aren't unbelievably beautiful?
Who can tell? ALL the actresses wear ten pounds of hair and five pounds of make-up. They are virtually unrecognizable out of their tons of make-up and hair. MOST have had SOME kind of cosmetic surgery as well.
"Foreign" actresses wear the same hair and make-up jobs...and get the same kinds of cosmetic surgery.
Oh yes, and the teeth. They all get the pearly whites done so they all have the same HUGE, toothy grin/smile/laugh for the cameras.
Lol. So funny to hear men say that...as if American women are somehow LESS gorgeous than the rest of the human women. All you have to do is watch Miss Universe pageants. You would NEVER know who came from where unless they wore their little banners. The Oriental and black women COULD be American too, as BEAUTIFUL women and handsome men all have that same "beauty."
In nature, The Golden Ratio and Fibonacci Numbers are the proportions that we human consider "handsome" and "beautiful" and they have to do with ratios of features to each other. Google it. ALL beautiful/handsome people fit the ratio...even American women.
I hope you married one of those beautiful "foreign" women and have children. If not, I hope your wife and other female relatives don't hear your views on "foreign" women.
Every episode ends on a cliffhanger like the old 1980s American night time soap operas.
You want to see what happens in the next episode.
I remember that one.....
“That’s how I made my money, by cutting out the middle man!”
*As the father suffers a heart attack*
“Son, did you call the doctor?”
Son: “No pop, I called the undertaker, I done like you always told me, I cut out the middle man.”
Father: “That’s my boy.” *dies*
Sounds like good writing.
Is it all in Korean? So there are subtitles?
There is also DramaFever, they have shows from Asia and from Spanish-speaking countries.
Isn’t it still free with ads?
Many of them are 16 episodes too.
“49 Days” was really good, like the ones you listed, but it is a tear-jerker.
“You Are All Surrounded” is pretty good too. I would definitely recommend “Gu Family Book” although it takes a couple episodes before they actually get done with the back-story. Also “My Girlfriend is a Nine-tailed Fox” was pretty good too, sometimes called “My Girlfriend is a Gumiho”. I put all these together because they all have the same male lead in Lee Seung-gi
.......
Not too long ago the translations online of Korean programs would make Babblefish gag. I am very happy they have improved them to the point where they make sense.
By the way...
Variety shows like “Running Man”, “The Human Condition”, “Roommates”, “Infinite Youth” etc can show us a lot about Korea and their society.
“Gag Concert” is a pretty funny sketch comedy show. You can find these on Youtube (KBS World-TV) by the way.
Its available in many languages.
I have mine set to English.
With ads, its free.
But you can get a 7 day free trial if you sign up for the $3.99 monthly rate, which allows you watch all the content ad-free.
In my opinion, that low price is worth the premium upgrade at Viki.
The subtitles are excellent.
I have no difficulty understanding Asian shows.
Even medieval period dramas are absorbing because the feudalism of ancient Korea is so much like that of medieval Europe.
Yeah but the DF monthly premium content costs more than Netflix. Still at $21 (if you subscribe to all three online networks) its still a heckuva bargain. You can pay twice as much for cable as you can for these three streaming online TV networks and you will never get all this high quality foreign entertainment on cable in English.
Thanks for the tip.
I watch them for free, I don’t mind the ads and with Ad Blocker Plus, often there aren’t any.
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