Two out of three South Koreans now pay for over-the-top (OTT) streaming services, according to a new government survey.
The Korea Communications Commission's 2025 Broadcast Media Usage Survey, which polled 8,320 individuals aged 13 and older from 5,566 households nationwide, found that 65.5% of respondents use paid OTT services this year, up 5.6 percentage points from 59.9% last year, the commission said Thursday.
Among paid OTT subscribers, 34.6% use ad-supported plans, with 88.4% of those users saying they are satisfied or have no complaints about the ad-tier option.
Overall OTT usage reached 81.8%, rising from 77.0% in 2023 and 79.2% in 2024. The continued growth extends beyond the core 10-to-30 age demographic to older users. Usage among those in their 40s surged to 98.0% this year from 88.5% in 2023, while the rate for those in their 60s climbed to 70.8% from 61.0%.
Pay TV subscriptions, including cable and IPTV, continue to decline amid rising OTT adoption, falling to 91.4% this year from 92.5% in 2023.
However, video-on-demand (VOD) usage, which had declined from 20.5% in 2022 to 18.3% in 2024, rebounded slightly to 19.2% this year.
Daily TV and smartphone usage remained largely unchanged from the previous year. TV viewing time edged up by one minute to 2 hours and 28 minutes, while smartphone usage dipped by one minute to 2 hours and 5 minutes.
When asked about essential media during disasters, 68.7% of respondents cited smartphones, down 7.8 percentage points, while TV rose 8.4 percentage points to 29.7%. TV broadcasting was named the most trusted medium during emergencies at 59.1%, followed by portals and newspapers at 17.1%, messenger services at 7.7%, and government websites at 5.3%.
Online audio content usage, which had been declining, rose 1.7 percentage points to 20.1%, driven by increased music streaming amid the K-pop boom.