The ratings of SBS Wednesday and Thursday drama series A Tree with Deep Roots (Deep Rooted Tree) have exceeded 20%, bringing huge profit to the production company and TV station. So far, the profit for SBS exceeds 100 billion Korean won (about USD $86.6 million), while production company iHQ gains net profit of 20 billion Korean won (about USD $17.32 million), setting the highest record in history. Especially the benefits for iHQ is the most profitable after Iris two years ago, becoming the successful story of ‘win-win’ for production company and TV station.
The industry believes that, the sharing method of SBS and iHQ for copyright export has attracted attention. According to SBS and iHQ, until now, the production of 24-episode Deep Rooted Tree costs about 5,000 million Korean won (about USD $433,000) per episode to make. Of which SBS bears 70% while iHQ 30%, additional copyright owned by iHQ, but on the export market both parties signed a sharing agreement.
Every episode of Deep Rooted Tree lasts 80 minutes, and has 32 advertisements. Each episode can bring average advertising revenue of about 14.3 million Korean won (about USD $12,383). The ads slots has so far sold for 11.2 billion Korean won (about USD $9.7 million). Coupled with about 2.3 billion Korean won (about 2 million US dollars) sales amount for the ads on repeat broadcasts, the income amount hits 13.5 billion Korean won (about 11.7 million US dollar). After deducting consignment fee and 18.4% Broadcasting Development Fund, the net income from the advertisements hits the range of 11 billion Korean won (about 9.5 million US dollar). The investment by the SBS towards production cost is 8.4 billion Korean won (about 7.27 million US dollar), bringing the net profit of 2.6 billion Korean won (about USD $2.25 million).
For iHQ, it invests 1500 million Korean won (about USD $130,000) per episode, for a total of 3.6 billion Korean won (about 3.12 million US dollar). The production company earns its share of 6000 million Korean won (about USD $520,000) per episode for broadcasting rights on cable channels, for a total of 1.44 billion Korean won (about 1.25 million US dollar), and 4000 million Korean won (about USD $346,600) per episode for online P2P download, for a total of 9600 million Korean won (about USD $831,360), setting the highest record in history.
In addition, the drama also been selected as one of the supported project by Korean cultural agency, and received an aid of 4500 million Korean won (about USD $390,000). Other than that, the areas of publishing and OST (original soundtrack) album bring income of about 7500 million Korean won (about USD $650,000). The grand total income of 3.6 billion Korean won (about 2.6 million US dollar), the drama has recouped all of its investment.
As such, all revenue received on export market will be net income.
It is reported that negotiation for export or sales to the whole Asia region including Japan is undergoing now, where the contract for Deep Rooted Tree broadcasting rights have been signed for 8 countries, while 7 more developed countries are still in negotiation. Until now, the export value has hit 5 billion Korean won (about 4.33 million US dollar), but additional free of 1 billion Korean won (about USD $866,000) may be inevitable. Of the export revenue, iHQ will account for 40% share after fee and other expenses, netting about 2 billion Korean won (about 1.73 million US dollar).
Leave a Reply