Dramafever is shutting down

[juhli.livejournal.com]

Warner Bros.’ DramaFever Korean-Drama Streaming Service Is Shutting Down https://t.co/dwRJyNIKPb

— Variety (@Variety) October 16, 2018

DramaFever, the streaming-video service specializing in Korean dramas and other Asian programming, is shutting down immediately.

Founded in 2009, New York-based DramaFever was acquired by Warner Bros. in 2016 from Japan’s SoftBank Group. New York-based DramaFever has operated as a unit of Warner Bros. Digital Networks, which has touted the streaming infrastructure and expertise it obtained through the acquisition.

“Today, Warner Bros. Digital Networks will be closing its DramaFever OTT service due to business reasons and in light of the rapidly changing marketplace for K-drama content, a staple of the service’s programming,” the company said in a statement Tuesday. “Warner Bros. Digital Labs, which encompasses more than two-thirds of the DramaFever workforce, will continue operating, serving as the tech engine behind many of WBDN’s operations.”

With the closure of DramaFever, about 20% of the unit’s 110 employees (or around 22) will be laid off.

According to a source familiar with DramaFever, licensing costs for U.S. distribution commanded by top K-dramas have rapidly increased in recent years, bid up by larger SVOD players like Netflix and Amazon — making the genre-focused over-the-top video business unsustainable. A show that used to cost $800,000 to license for streaming now goes for around $1 million per season, according to the source.

The move to shutter DramaFever comes after AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner and the formation of WarnerMedia. Last week, WarnerMedia CEO John Stankey, said the company would launch a broad subscription-streaming entertainment service anchored by HBO that would pull in content from other parts of Time Warner. As part of launching the new WarnerMedia-wide service, AT&T said it would be “consolidating resources from sub-scale D2C efforts,” which evidently included the phasing out of DramaFever.

DramaFever offered an ad-free premium option that started at $4.99 per month, touting a lineup of over 13,000 episodes from 60 content partners across 12 countries. The content — which spanned K-dramas, other Asian TV shows and movies, and Latin American telenovelas — also has been available to watch on a free, ad-supported basis. DramaFever’s programming was translated into English, Spanish and Portuguese and available on the web, mobile and connected-TV devices.

Titles on the service have included popular Korean rom-com “Boys Over Flowers,” as well as “Jealousy Incarnate,” “The Best Hit,” “Go Ho’s Starry Night,” “Heart Signal,” “Hospital Ship,” “Longing Heart,” “Missing Nine,” “Thumping Spike,” “Goblin: The Lonely and Great God,” “Heirs,” “My Sassy Girl,” “Cinderella and Four Knights,” “Princess Agents,” “My Love From Another Star” and “Emergency Couple.”

Warner Bros. Digital Labs is overseen by GM Patty Hirsch, who joined the company earlier this year from Time Inc., as Seung Bak, one of DramaFever’s co-founders and previous head of WB Digital Labs, left the company. In April, Rena Liu was named GM of DramaFever, reporting to Hirsch, after serving as director of strategy and operations for Warner Bros. Digital Labs; Liu’s status at the company is unclear.

Source: variety, @variety

Omona,which streaming sites do you use?

Comments

[juhli.livejournal.com]

Shocked at this sudden shut down. I wonder why there was no pre-notice for customers...

[921227.livejournal.com]

Damn, that sucks. DF is super conveniant & Im upset its shutting down

[riceballism.livejournal.com]

I know for sure that I like Viki better but as of lately I've been using just Netflix and third party streaming sites for certain drama fixes lol

From dramafever homepage

[juhli.livejournal.com]

Thank you for nine great years As of October 16, DramaFever has been shut down.

For nine years, DramaFever offered a place for streaming the best Korean, Chinese and Japanese dramas on-demand, straight to your device. We appreciate the passion of our fans and it’s been a privilege to deliver you this content.

While this decision is difficult, there are a variety of business reasons that have led to this conclusion. We appreciate each and every one of our fans and their passion for the content DramaFever was able to bring into your lives.

We'd like to take this time to extend our thanks and gratitude to you, our loyal subscribers. We'll be issuing refunds as applicable, and subscribers will receive an email from us with details in the coming days.

Sincerely,

The DramaFever Team

[weneedmedicine.livejournal.com]

I use Viki and DF. I like the subs on Viki better, but this sucks :(

[modestgoddess79.livejournal.com]

I want my money back.

[genesisgrey.livejournal.com]

I'm really upset...

[setsuna16.livejournal.com]

This is very, very unfortunate and unexpected.

[fadeintoyou.livejournal.com]

Aw man this sucks. I go between Viki and DF and actually like DF more because it’s just really convenient and easy. Notice would’ve been nice especially I pay for the service.

[ty.livejournal.com]

FUCK!!! I was just wanting to finish watching D.O's drama. This really fucking sucks. They just charged me the $4.99 like two days ago. Seriously WTF

[twnty7.livejournal.com]

Damn, this sucks :( I loved DF. I'm shocked and i'm also upset that they took my payment just a few days ago for this month. What the hell

[rainstormraider.livejournal.com]

This is some BS.

As a customer I am pissed af.

[handsomejin.livejournal.com]

are,......they going to refund me the year membership i just paid.....yikes

[adlyeith.livejournal.com]

Could always see if you could dispute the charge with your bank/PayPal/whatever payment method you used and get a refund.

[pastelpinklace.livejournal.com]

Sucks but hopefully this means netflix starts acquiring more kdramas

[accioanime.livejournal.com]

I love Netflix for my American shows but their subs are shitty when it comes to Asian dramas. They pick up the randomest shit and mix it with some of the greats. They also don't have a consistent schedule of subbing currently-airing dramas weekly. I remember when I was watching Meteor Garden and no new episode came out for like 2-3 weeks and then suddenly 3 came out and stopped again. Drama addicts like me are spoiled by a consistent schedule lol

[ah0000.livejournal.com]

I'm sad about this and it's sudden but at the same time I'm not surprised. When I saw that Running Man wasn't available anymore a couple weeks ago I was like uh oh, again??

I had this as a yearly subscription so hopefully they'll pro-rate me. I was also using my friend's Viki account.

Does Kocowa actually have a service? Or do they feed into DF/Viki/Netflix? Since they were created by the big three I feel like that's probably the best option if it actually exists as a subscription or an app

I'm gonna miss DF tho honestly it was my go-to app

[modestgoddess79.livejournal.com]

Kocowa has a service but their app sucked and it wasn’t available on my kindle fire stick so I couldn’t watch it on my tv, I cancelled it

[hpn88.livejournal.com]

booooo.
Man am I old - i remember when DF first started and now its shut down. i wonder who is the replacement?

[keytfelt.livejournal.com]

I knew something big was up yesterday when I was seeing people online complaining about them not updating any of the weekend and M/T dramas and I checked their YouTube page last night and all videos were gone. I didn't expect it to be over and shut down today though. Even if I don't really use DramaFever, this sucks. Having one less major subber is probably going to mean
1) more dramas will not be getting picked up to sub
2) Netflix will grab even more with their crappy subbing release schedule (and inability to announce what dramas they've hoarded licensing for)
3) subs won't be available as quickly as my entitled self expects them to be

It was super sketchy how they didn't announce anything to subscribers and when people asked support they were just told that dramas were delayed and would be coming out soon, an obvious lie. They just handled this so badly.

Right now they were in the midst of airing: 100 Days My Prince, The Beauty Inside, Terius Behind Me, The Third Charm, Devilish Joy, Player, Room No 9, Heart Surgeons (glad now that I checked earlier while the website was still up). It looks like most of them are still being subbed either on Viki or Viu (if you live in the areas you can use these services). It's going to be interesting to see how many shows Viki picks up with the new drama cycle.

[reader17.livejournal.com]

This makes me so sad! I feel bad for everyone that is being laid off. I have been a customer of DF since 2012. They didn't have as many drama's as they used to. I remember when it was still growing and they were people doing it because they loved to sub the shows. I was happy that they finally got a few newer titles.

I stopped Viki awhile ago because it didn't like my ad blocker and wouldn't play right even when I disabled it. I didn't want to pay two sites and I already had a yearly subscription with Drama fever. I guess I will have to sign up for Viki or Kocowa.

Since I know people that work at AT&T I guess will complain to them not that it will work but this still makes me upset. You would think with a bigger company buying them that they could of kept it going. :(

[lulufairybubble.livejournal.com]

Viki is superior but hinestly there are tons of sites you can watch all that on anyway and without ads or money.

[ty.livejournal.com]

Can you let us know which ones? I just want to finish 100 Days my Prince.

Some sites I tried last night just tried to give me spyware.

[by-venoms-sting.livejournal.com]

WTF

So this is why new episodes didn't get released today and yesterday. Here I was thinking it was just a random break/change in scheduling which has happened in regards to the show I'm watching before so I didn't it was something as big as this.

I typically use Viki because I like the extra explanations for what is being said that you get sometimes. I also like Viki because the firestick app is ad free. I typically use Dramafever for shows that aren't available on Viki or if the subbing gets done faster on DF than Viki.

Dramafever was super convenient for me to use so it sucks that it's shutting down.

[evilcoc0nut.livejournal.com]

This is srsly fucking maddening. Almost no warning. And these dumb companies wonder why pirates are making a comeback. Foh.

[vintage-boom.livejournal.com]

sounds like WB is going to launch their own service. doesn't sound like they had enough subscribers to properly keep afloat though so I think they might let it all go. I feel bad that 20% of their staff is being let go.

I just watch stuff on netflix, youtube, kshow and kissasian mostly. KorTV used to have some great free reruns but then they moved them behind a paywall.

We're going to move to the point where we pay the same for streaming services as we did cable packages :/

[honeebs.livejournal.com]

omg..... .wtf i am so made right now. so pissed wtf am I suppose to watch stuff.
they just made a huge mistake, huge.
They att could have reworked those contracts, imo.
more greedy rat bastards

[suggestivepeach.livejournal.com]

Wait WHAT

[existingisfunny.livejournal.com]

i'm not an expert at sub quality and know a lot of people preferred other places to dramafever, but my drama watching started here and it's such a staple... sucks that an innovator got eaten up and now all the other big streaming sites get to take over that market they thought nothing of