[Digital Today reporter Seulgi Son] South Korea's online video service (OTT) industry is accelerating the move to charge for sports content. The industry says it is also seeing the effect of a sharp increase in users during major matches.

Mobile Index data released on Aug. 11 showed daily active users (DAU) for OTT platforms carrying live broadcasts rose noticeably on the days of major sports matches.

On the day Coupang Play exclusively broadcast the 2026 Coupang Play Series match between Team K League and Manchester City on Aug. 5, Coupang Play's DAU was 1,020,315. That was up 13.5 percent from 898,912 the previous day.

Compared with the average DAU of 848,929 over the week before the match, the increase reached 20.2 percent. On the same day, Tving's DAU fell 18.6 percent from the previous day, while Netflix and Wavve slipped 1.4 percent and 3.0 percent, respectively. That suggests the football event hosted, organised and broadcast by Coupang Play drew users to the platform.

A similar pattern appeared on Feb. 21 during the Coupang Play K League Super Cup 2026 match between Jeonbuk Hyundai and Daejeon Hana Citizen. Coupang Play's DAU that day was 942,044, up 10.2 percent from 855,015 the previous day. It was 4.1 percent higher than the average over the week before the match. Coupang Play exclusively aired the match live.

Tving, which is promoting professional baseball, saw a pronounced season-opening effect. On March 28, when the 2026 KBO League opened, Tving's DAU jumped 48.2 percent to 2,032,909 from 1,371,942 the previous day. That was also 28.9 percent higher than the average of 1,577,330 over the week before the games.

On March 29, the day after the opening, Tving's DAU was 1,968,540, close to 2 million. With games involving the 10 professional baseball teams concentrated over the two-day weekend, it is interpreted as having the effect of keeping users on the platform.

As sports has become a way to attract OTT users, the industry is also actively using sports not just to increase traffic but to monetise it.

Coupang Play has moved to direct monetisation by separating sports content into a separate paid product. The Coupang Play Sports Pass costs 16,600 won per month for regular members and 9,900 won per month for Wow members. It bundles major sports content such as the Premier League and the NBA into a separate paid product.

Coupang Play is also linking the Coupang Play Series to the Sports Pass. This year, subscribers to the Sports Pass were given early access to buy tickets for the Team K League-Manchester City match and the Manchester City-Atletico Madrid match. It is a way to link sports fans to paid products and offline events.

An industry official said, "As the subscription trend has taken hold where people willingly pay for quality content, service quality as implemented on the actual screen will be an important factor in determining whether the viewer base settles in."

Tving is using the KBO to secure long-term users and expand subscription and advertising revenue. CJ ENM signed a three-year contract with the KBO in 2024 for wired and wireless broadcast rights for 2024 to 2026 worth 135 billion won in total. The annual average was 45 billion won, the largest wired and wireless broadcast-rights deal in South Korean professional sports at the time.

Performance is also improving after the large-scale investment. Tving posted second-quarter revenue of 140.7 billion won this year, up 40 percent from a year earlier, and recorded operating profit of 6 billion won, turning profitable.

CJ ENM directly cited KBO season performance as the reason for the second-quarter improvement. It said net subscriber additions and monthly active users (MAU) increased on the popularity of the KBO and original content, and based on that both advertising and subscription revenue grew.

Hyun-kyung Jang (장현경), chief financial officer of CJ ENM, said on a second-quarter earnings conference call, "Net subscriber additions and MAU increased due to KBO season performance and the popularity of original titles, and as a result advertising revenue and subscription revenue grew strongly," adding, "In the long term, profitability is improving on a trend basis as the scale of subscription revenue and advertising revenue expands."

It plans to use sports as a way to expand advertising revenue in the second half as well. CJ ENM said it expects Tving's performance to slow somewhat in the third quarter from the second quarter due to a seasonal lull in advertising and rising content procurement costs, but it aims to maximise advertising revenue by using the KBO postseason and the peak advertising season in the fourth quarter.