K-Drama Makers Seek a $746 Million Fund as Output Falls From 141 Titles to About 115

K-dramas are a global hit, but the people who make them say the industry at home is running out of work. Twelve groups representing South Korea’s K-drama industry, from producers and broadcasters to writers, actors and camera crews, called on the government on Wednesday, Nov. 4, to set up a 1 trillion won (about $746 million) investment fund, CNA reported.

The groups, speaking at a joint press conference at the Korea Press Center in Seoul, said rising production costs and broadcasters’ shrinking ability to invest have sharply reduced the number of dramas being made, and asked lawmakers to make restoring that number a national policy goal.

K-drama industry output by the numbers

South Korea produced 141 drama titles in 2022 and about 115 in 2025, according to research by Korea IR Service cited by CNA. The Korea Drama Producers Association put the decline at about 30% in just two years from the 2022 peak, The Asia Business Daily reported.

The drop is steepest on traditional TV. The three terrestrial broadcasters, KBS, MBC and SBS, cut the dramas they scheduled from 91 in 2012 to 32 in 2023, and some channels have stopped airing weekday dramas altogether, the groups said.

Why production is falling

The groups blamed soaring costs that they linked to competition with global streaming platforms such as Netflix. A 2025 Korea IR Service report found that pay for top-billed stars was the main driver, with fees climbing as streaming services competed for talent, according to CNA. At the same time, broadcasters’ advertising revenue has declined, making it harder for them to recoup investments, and production companies often fail to keep enough intellectual property rights to earn follow-on revenue from their hits, The Asia Business Daily reported. The groups also cited competition from short-form content and AI.

The squeeze shows up in careers. The current environment makes it difficult to support “a new writer’s second work, a supporting actor’s first lead role and an assistant crew member’s directing debut,” said Song Byeong-joon, chairman of the Korea Drama Production Association.

Writer Park Hae-young, known for “My Mister” and “My Liberation Notes,” spoke as chair of the copyright committee of the Korea Television and Radio Writers Association. “The assistant writers who work under me are idle. None of them can find work,” she said, warning that talented creators are leaving for short-form and web content and games.

Budgets rise, but not for TV drama

The plea comes as Seoul is spending more on culture overall. The culture ministry’s 2027 budget proposal is 9.6345 trillion won, up 22.6% from this year, and its content budget rose 9.5%. But according to the 12 groups, the ministry’s broadcasting and video budget falls from 91.8 billion won to 87.3 billion won, and the Broadcasting Media Communications Commission’s money for broadcast content drops from 16.8 billion won to 12.4 billion won. The cuts land inside a much larger national plan: South Korea has proposed a record 820.9 trillion won budget that nearly doubles spending on chips and AI.

The Korean Wave is still growing abroad. Exports tied to it reached $18.975 billion last year, up 15.9%, according to the culture ministry and the Korean Foundation for International Cultural Exchange, with consumer goods and tourism accounting for $8.788 billion.

What the industry wants, and the skeptics

The groups want the government to take part in early-stage investment to draw in private money, support distribution through broadcasters and streaming services, and reinvest revenue from finished shows into future productions. They also asked for help for mid- and low-budget dramas and new creators so funding does not pool in big-budget series. “This is not the time to look back on past successes, but to prepare for the next 10 years of K-dramas,” Song said, and the industry pledged to rationalize production costs.

Not everyone sees a sector-wide crisis. Kim Yong-hee, a business professor at Sun Moon University, told CNA the problems largely reflect the decline of terrestrial broadcasting rather than the whole industry. Content-industry employment edged up to 693,090 in 2025 from 688,122 a year earlier, according to the Korea Creative Content Agency, though broadcasting jobs fell 2.3% in 2024. Netflix, which pledged in 2023 to invest $2.5 billion in South Korea over four years, did not have an immediate comment, CNA said. More regional coverage is on our Asia-Pacific news page.

Sources

• CNA: South Korean TV drama industry seeks US$746 million in support as output declines (Nov. 4, 2026)
• The Asia Business Daily: K-dramas expand globally, but domestic production falls 30%
• Maeil Business Newspaper coverage of the K-drama industry press conference