Increasing number of major Korean variety PDs move to the Chinese market


Article: The backlash of the Hallyu wave hits public broadcast

Source: Korea Ilbo via Naver

Article talks about how Chinese media companies are buying out/"funding" major Korean variety PDs/scriptwriters to work on Chinese shows. Many big industry production names have announced Chinese advancements, leaving Korean shows with a decrease in their talents. Reasons for the PDs making the switch to China are a mixture of poor working conditions on Korean broadcast sets along with the better pay.

1. [+1,182, -44] I understand that they left for the better pay in China but I'm positive that it's also because of issues with our own broadcast companies..

2. [+957, -21] Lee Min Ho has basically stopped all work in Korea and continues to pick up work in China. There's a reason for that, they pay him a ton in guarantees..

3. [+916, -20] The money difference is just too big. Yoona got paid 3 billion won for a Chinese historical drama...

4. [+550, -40] Korea wouldn't have lost them if they only treated them right ㅠ

5. [+116, -6] The Avengers made 170 billion won in China in just a week. We just can't compete with their market anymore.

6. [+81, -6] MBC's already such a mess, it's hopeless. China is scouting all of our talents and using them to strip them of their talents and create their own shows of similar formats but better and improved. Korea's going to be swallowed whole at this rate. Of course PDs will move to better working conditions when there's no future over here. It's not fair to hold them down based on country pride. If I was working in poor conditions and got a better offer elsewhere, I'd leave too. Kim Young Hee PD is also highly influential and I bet a lot of people will follow him out.

7. [+78, -4] I think a lot of PDs are considering it because it's another opportunity... Variety shows are one of the Hallyu wave's main contents so I'm not happy that our talents are being taken by China like this;

8. [+72, -5] They're basically going to have their talents be used by China and stripped clean until they crawl back to Korea with nothing. And to the commenters saying that they should be treated better, just how much better should they be treated? The industry is already living in a bubble, they make hundreds of thousands more than any commoner with so much more free time.

9. [+68, -3] They'll come back. China isn't stupid. They're just going to use them for everything they know and spit them back out.

10. [+54, -1] These PDs are basically just going to have their talents copied out and then thrown away.

11. [+52, -0] We're going to lose to China at this rate... They'll copy all of the production secrets of Korean PDs and then use it to come up with better shows.

12. [+51, -1] There's nothing we can do about them leaving for better pay... but it becomes an issue when they're not just simply moving agencies but moving countries. They'll also obviously come back once the Hallyu wave dies down in China.

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