Contentwave, the operator of online streaming service (OTT) Wavve, has appointed Lee Yang-gi, head of CJ ENM's (035760.KS) OTT Competitiveness Reinforcement Task Force, as its new CEO. Attention is now focused on whether the long-awaited merger between Tving and Wavve will gain momentum.
Contentwave said Tuesday that its board of directors selected Lee as the new CEO at a meeting held the previous day. Lee previously served as CJ ENM's business management head, chief financial officer of Tving, and CFO of Contentwave.
According to Contentwave, Lee played a leading role in enhancing the combined value of Wavve and Tving even before taking office. He drove major business achievements including supplying key CJ ENM content such as films and tvN dramas to Wavve, launching a Wavve-Tving bundled subscription and an ad-supported plan (AVOD), enabling mutual supply of original content between Wavve and Tving, and securing broadcasting rights for KLPGA and KPGA professional golf. Wavve and Tving have steadily signaled their merger intent by strengthening their strategic partnership. On March 17, the two platforms announced a cross-supply deal for their original content. Tving currently offers Wavve original variety show "Ideological Verification Zone: The Community," while Wavve streams Tving original series "Girls' High School Mystery Class" and tvN drama "Stranger," among others. Last year, the two rolled out bundled products such as the "Double Pass" (Tving + Wavve) and "3 Pack" (Tving + Wavve + Disney+), steadily building a cooperative model. "I will do my best to create synergies between Wavve and Tving, which are pursuing a merger, and deliver the best content experience to users," Lee said.
Behind the increasing convergence between Tving and Wavve lies the stalled merger between the two companies. The two signed a memorandum of understanding for a merger in December 2023 and received conditional approval from the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) in June last year. However, negotiations have reached an impasse as KT, Tving's second-largest shareholder, has taken a cautious stance on the merger. CJ ENM holds a 48.85% stake in Tving, while KT Studio Genie holds 13.54%.
Tving and Wavve aim to reclaim market share in the OTT market currently dominated by Netflix through the merger. According to WiseApp·Retail, Netflix held a 40% domestic market share as of February with 14.9 million users. It was followed by Coupang Play (24.1%), Tving (15.1%), Disney+ (8.1%), and Wavve (5.8%). Data from Mobile Index also showed that Netflix maintained monthly active users (MAU) of over 15 million in February, while Tving (7.33 million) and Wavve (3.76 million) combined reached only around 11 million.
"The merger issue goes beyond the survival of the two companies — it could lead to a contraction of Korea's entire content and media industry. A swift decision must be made for the survival of the industry as a whole," an industry official said.