Astory CEO Lee Sang-baek speaks in a conference at Broadcast Worldwide 2022 at Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Jung-gu, Seoul. (KOCCA)

With its two previous events held in online, BCWW was excited to welcome the industry insiders and visitors.

Wednesday’s opening day event began with a session on the power and future of K-contents, featuring Lee Sang-baek, CEO of Astory, the production company behind “Extraordinary Attorney Woo” and the series’ director Yoo In-sik.

Highlighting the importance of IP ownership, Lee shared the thoughts on his latest global hit series “Extraordinary Attorney Woo,” his vision and the future of Korean contents.

“I recently received many questions from friends and the media on why I chose to work with a lesser-known TV channel, ENA. Everything was related with IP ownership,” Lee said during a special session in BCWW 2022.

Lee said that his biggest priority was handing over broadcast rights without transferring the IP ownership of his courtroom drama.

“For the small-and-medium-sized production companies, like my Astory, IP ownership is one of the most important survival strategies,” Lee said.

Astory CEO explained that even though his company created a global zombie phenomenon with “Kingdom,” he was not able to turn the series into a cash cow.

“With our choice to work with ENA, drama fans are able to enjoy Woo Young-woo content in various ways, including webtoons, musical and possible a American adaptation,” Lee said.

Lee also added that Korean content still had room for development.

“South Korea is a country with small domestic consumption. With our skills and competence, we have expanded the market for our contents to other Asian countries. This may be the reason why we are able to produce many high-quality series,” the CEO said.

Lee believed that the next goal of achieving a level on par with with Hollywood can be accomplished by working with American companies and harnessing production skills.

“With outstanding content creators, screenwriters and actors, I don’t think this is an impossible dream,” he added.

Wednesday’s event continued with the industry insiders and experts, including ITV Studio’s vice president Ella Umansky, Studio Dragon’s head of global division Park Hyun, SLL’s head of production business unit Park Joon-suh and more, discussing content studios' business strategies in building partnerships, Korean content and formats.

Sessions on thecontent trends in the age of streaming, Korean drama’s new opportunities and more will be held Thursday.

According to the Korean Creative Content Agency, more than 600 buyers and officials from 31 countries have registered for the event, including NBC universal, Amazon Prime and Warner Media.

BCWW 2022 kicked off on Wednesday and will run through Friday.

The conferences and showcases are also available online via BCWW’s official website.

By Lee Si-jin (sj_lee@heraldcorp.com)