Most Internet Users in South Korea Now Watch Movies Online

Digital movie viewership in South Korea has nearly tripled in two years, according to one source, and watching TV programs via the internet is also becoming more common.

Last year, according to the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) and Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MSIP) South Korea, two-thirds of internet users ages 6 and older watched movies online. That was up dramatically from 41.3% in 2014 and 23.3% a year earlier.

Digital TV viewing was also up, though less significantly. A little less than half of the internet population of South Korea consumed TV shows online in 2015, less than double the share who did so in 2013.

According to Google and TNS research from March 2015, 22% of adults in South Korea watched TV via streaming to a device other than a TV set, and 16% watched internet-streamed TV shows sent to television sets.

Earlier research from DMC Media found that digital movie viewers in South Korea were most likely to watch movie content via mobile phone; nearly a third did so. Desktop viewing was the next most common method, with 28.3% of movie viewers primarily watching on PCs.