Propelled by the Korean wave, CJ ENM prepares for a global role

Make no mistake: CJ ENM is on the move.

The South Korean conglomerate that has done as much as any company to develop the ecosystem of The country's entertainment is actively seeking to expand its "production capacity and skills".

This is the word of Kang Ho-sung, CEO of Film, TV Company Group and music who now share the CJ ENM banner. Kang gave a rare, lengthy interview to Variety on August 21 in downtown Los Angeles on the sidelines of CJ ENM's KCON LA pop culture convention, which was attended by nearly 100,000 fans from across the United States. /p>

Kang Ho-sung, CEO of CJ ENM.

Despite the palpable teenage spirit that KCON brought to two packed concerts at the Crypto.com Arena, Kang describes CJ's current ENM mission in terms that are both humble and ambitious.

“Our core business is that of content provider. Our biggest goal is to create quality premium content and grow it globally," says Kang.

Since early 2020, CJ ENM has significantly increased its visibility in Hollywood by purchasing a minority stake in Skydance Media of David Ellison and a majority stake in Endeavor Content. He also placed a marker in the metaverse with an investment in "digital human" provider Hyperreal.

At the end of last month, CJ ENM announced the appointment of Steve W. Chung, a former Fox executive, as the group's chief growth officer. Significantly, he must be based in Los Angeles, not Seoul.

At home, CJ ENM threw away his previous playbook, relinquishing absolute ownership and control for partnerships that bring capital, accelerate growth and share risks and rewards. In 2020, it spun off its TVing streaming platform and recapitalized it in an alliance with tech giant Naver and broadcaster-producer JTBC. TVing has since merged with smaller rival Seezn while retaining Seezn's useful relationship with KT Corp., formerly known as Korea Telecom.

To further accelerate the production of K content, the conglomerate launched Studio CJ ENM, a production helmed by film ace producer-director JK Youn. It has built Asia's largest virtual production studio and entered into a joint venture agreement in Japan for its TV production arm Studio Dragon.

"Our main goal is to maximize content production capacity and skills," says Kang. This should help TV in its quest to overtake Netflix in Korea and become the country's biggest streamer. But Kang says there are no plans to stop sales of outside programs by the group's many production units: "Our two-pronged approach to content means we're not going to limit ourselves. We also want to use external content platforms."

Studio Dragon is still renegotiating its agreement to provide...