DramaFever: Best Alternatives Websites for 2024

The online streaming video service known as DramaFever, which specialized in Korean dramas and other forms of Asian programming, is going out of business immediately. The New York-based entertainment company DramaFever was established in 2009, and in 2016, Warner Bros. purchased it from the SoftBank Group in Japan. Warner Bros. has had DramaFever, which is situated in New York, function as a subsidiary of the company. Digital Networks, which has boasted about the streaming infrastructure and knowledge it got through the deal, said the acquisition was a “game changer.” As a result of the impending closure of DramaFever, about 22 of the unit’s total of 110 employees will be made redundant. A request to interview corporate executives regarding the closure was denied by Warner Bros. According to the source, the licensing fee for a show to be viewed online used to be $800,000, but it has now increased to approximately $1 million per season. The following was part of a message that was posted on the DramaFever website on Tuesday: “Thank you for nine fantastic years. Since the 16th of October, DramaFever has been taken offline… Although this choice was not an easy one to make, many different commercial considerations led to this conclusion. In addition, the notice on the DramaFever website stated, “We will be offering refunds when applicable, and subscribers will get an email from us with specifics in the coming days.” Following AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner and the subsequent establishment of WarnerMedia, the decision was made to discontinue the operations of DramaFever. The CEO of WarnerMedia, John Stankey, announced a week ago that the business will be launching a comprehensive subscription-based streaming entertainment service that would be centered on HBO and would pull in content from other areas of Time Warner. AT&T stated that it will be “consolidating resources from sub-scale D2C [direct-to-consumer] operations” as part of the process of introducing the new WarnerMedia-wide service. This move includes the phasing out of DramaFever as one of the sub-scale D2C efforts. An ad-free premium alternative was available through DramaFever for a starting price of $4.99 per month. The service promoted a library of over 13,000 episodes sourced from 60 content partners located in 12 countries. The programming, which included Korean dramas, other Asian television shows, movies, and telenovelas from Latin America, has also been made available to view for free, with advertisements serving as the primary funding source. The programming of DramaFever was localized into English, Spanish, and Portuguese, and it was made accessible via the internet, mobile devices, and linked televisions. Following its acquisition of DramaFever in 2016, Warner Bros. announced that it will be terminating the service effective immediately. The production company announced its decision to discontinue the service in a press statement that was widely disseminated. According to the statement, the decision was made for financial reasons and in response to the rapidly shifting market for Korean drama content, which was a mainstay of the service’s programming. And when parent corporations are thinking in terms of billions, they don’t have time for those who are thinking in terms of millions.

An enthusiastic but limited following existed for DramaFever

There was nothing flimsy about the media brand that was built out of the gaming algorithms at DramaFever. DramaFever possessed many of the qualities that are indicative of a prosperous and long-lasting media enterprise. It had a dedicated following in a certain subfield, and a significant number of people were paying for access to its content. According to various individuals that have firsthand knowledge of the company’s business, as of the time when DramaFever streaming service was shut down, it had more than 400,000 paying subscribers. The service offered multiple ad-free subscription tiers beginning at $4.99 per month. This is still a considerable audience in terms of niche video streaming services, which is still a relatively young sector for the majority of competitors, but it is less than Crunchyroll, which disclosed its subscribers for the final time in February 2017, when it had crossed one million paying members. The number of DramaFever’s devoted followers was relatively low but unwavering. According to the data collected by comScore in the United States over the past three years, the service has averaged between 300,000 and 400,000 unique desktop video watchers each month. When it was announced that the service would be discontinued, a large number of users immediately went to the comment sections of articles and Reddit to express their shock and dissatisfaction with the decision. At the time of publication, the article published by Variety had received more than 500 comments. These responses ranged in tone from “DramaFever please turn back on” to “Why did you have to do this? I enjoyed DramaFever. It must be brought back.”

However, DramaFever was a relatively insignificant component of Warner Bros’ overall company. According to insiders who are familiar with the operations of the company, DramaFever was on course to bring in approximately $25 million in revenue in 2018, with approximately two-thirds of the revenue coming from subscriptions rather than advertising. However, it was never successful in turning a profit for an entire year. According to estimates, the typical cost of licensing a Korean drama series was approximately $80,000 at the time when DramaFever was established in 2009. According to the sources, these expenses have recently increased to anything from one million to multiple millions of dollars for each title. According to a source, this is the reason why DramaFever was expected to post a loss in the “single-digit millions” of dollars this year. It was suggested by several different sources that Netflix’s interest in Korean dramas increased overall interest in that category of programming; ultimately, this was to DramaFever’s advantage because the company maintained a more extensive library than the other major streaming services. According to additional sources, the decision to shut down DramaFever was not made due to a lack of consumer interest in Korean variety shows. Others contend that Korean broadcasters have begun to raise licensing rates as a result of an increase in the number of mainstream platforms that have shown interest in the genre. Kocowa is a streaming service that was created to compete with DramaFever and Viki. The service was launched by a consortium consisting of three broadcasters: KBS, MBC, and SBS. Viki provides two different subscription tiers: the first one is priced at $35 per year and does not include Kocowa; the second one is priced at $100 per year and does include Kocowa.

A new owner!

Unfortunately for DramaFever, the price of doing business increased right around the time that the company was being sold to new owners. DramaFever was acquired by Warner Bros. in 2016, and AT&T now owns both of these companies. However, AT&T has different goals for its OTT businesses. There is still something known as DramaFever but in a modified version. Although the DramaFever consumer brand and streaming service have been discontinued, the studio that produced them is still operational within Warner Bros. Executives at DramaFever have, throughout the past few years, been gradually transitioning the company toward becoming more of a technology provider for other streaming services. To do this, they have been making use of the same technology, infrastructure, and business model that have contributed to DramaFever’s expansion. The technology developed by DramaFever is presently powering services such as Shudder, which is owned by AMC Networks, as well as DC Universe, which is owned by Warner Bros., and Boomerang, which is owned by Turner. This is accomplished by a division known as Warner Bros. Digital Labs is a part of Warner Bros. and can be found there. DramaFever alums make up two-thirds of the team of Digital Networks, which was formerly known as DramaFever.

Alternatives to DramaFever

Viki

Viki is one of the most popular alternatives to DramaFever that is now available. Viki is a mix of the two terms “video” and “wiki.” You may also watch your favorite episodes whenever and wherever you want thanks to the available mobile app. Viki provides its users with a broad selection of high-definition (HD) versions of Korean dramas, with the majority of its videos also including subtitles. However, this is not the case for all of the shows, even though many of them are accessible to fans all over the world. Because of license concerns, several shows are only available in particular areas throughout the world. For instance, the well-liked show “Heirs” is only broadcast in nations located in Europe, whereas “Medalist Lawyer Heir” can be seen in countries located outside of Europe.

Viu

If you’re looking for a streaming service that’s easy to use, Viu is a nice alternative to DramaFever that you might want to consider. The service has a user interface that is easy to navigate and a media player that loads quickly. Viu, which provides content such as Asian dramas, entertainment news, anime, and variety shows, is frequently referred to as an “over-the-top” (or OTT) streaming website.

AsianCrush

Another well-liked option to DramaFever that provides users with all of the most recent developments in Asian entertainment is AsianCrush. The streaming service is accessible on a wide variety of platforms, including Android, iOS, AppleTV, Roku, and others. Users have access to a wide variety of media, including the most recent episodes of popular Korean dramas, Asian horror films, action movies, movies on martial arts, anime, and many more. The user interface of AsianCrush is very straightforward, and it provides categorized views of the available video content. Subtitles are already embedded into the site’s high-definition video files.

Kocowa

Kocowa is a paid video streaming service that delivers Korean television episodes to users located in countries other than South Korea. Korean dramas, K-pop shows, variety programs, and other forms of video entertainment can be viewed online. The application is downloadable for use on Chromecast, as well as iPhones, iPads, and Android-powered devices. The most recent episodes of Korean variety programs and K-pop music videos are available to stream in high definition and with English subtitles just six hours after they first air in Korea. If you are based in the United States, then this may be the option that is most suitable for you. However, we did come across articles on Reddit and other forums that indicated some series are geo-restricted if you’re located outside of the US. Watching any of the shows we tried to view without utilizing a virtual private network (VPN) did not present any difficulties for us.