Is there a way to know which dramas need our help with requesting a license? I’ve seen many different threads, but since it’s a VIP topic (and our CMs should never lose hope) I suggest we make a sticky topic, where everyone can add their channel and update when they get the license, so we can see how successful our requests are.
I for one would visit a pinned topic all the time and it would be easier to have all the requests in one place, so we can all help, even we don’t follow some channels.
There is already a thread on this for Chinese dramas and another for Korean dramas.
It would be nice if both could be pinned so that people add their own dramas there instead of creating a new thread for each one.
We have chinese, korean, japanese etc dramas, movies, music channels, shows etc. So, even if we keep the current ones, we’ll end up with a bunch of threads. I think one thread would be much more helpful and easy to navigate.
Yes, they just happened to be separated. One thread for all dramas would be all right with me. I would have to skip a lot, as I have zero interest for Chinese and Taiwanese dramas. But it’s no big problem.
I admit I request licenses whenever I’m asked, even if I don’t plan to watch… I might change my mind, I like it when Viki adds popular content (not clips) and I support the teams.
I really don’t agree. Viki wants to test the waters before paying money for one drama and not for another. So it wants to know how many people are interested in watching it. I would feel bad to request licenses for things I don’t have interest in, as if I were cheating them somehow.
Calling it cheating is taking it a bit too far, don’t you think? It’s not like we plan a trip, and I bail after reservations are made.
Also, I’d bet most viewers don’t know and aren’t concerned about the licensing procedure, it might feel natural and essential to you because you submit channels, but most of your viewers just click and play if it’s there, click next if it’s not. To put it simply, I believe out of 10.000 viewers interested in a drama (that will actually watch all the episodes), 1.000 will submit a request and additional requests will just help, not the other way around. Also, what if a drama turns out to be horrible, and 100.000 watch the first episode but only 500 the whole series?
If Viki were interested, users wouldn’t be able to submit multiple requests (this is cheating btw, but it’s highly encouraged), and it would track in some way whether we are QCs, paying customers, logged-in customers or just unknown visitors who submit the requests. And I can’t believe Viki has somehow developed a sophisticated system that takes into account all these parameters and says “Oh, 690.707 requests, so this function tells me there will be 575 Viki Pass viewers”.
I highly doubt there has been even one single drama that Viki licensed because they were tricked into it but nobody watched, and thus cost them money with no returns. But there are multiple dramas that no one had a clue existed and because they were licensed Viki gained viewership.
That’s why I said “somewhat”. Meaning that it makes me feel like submitting false information (that I am interested in such a drama when in reality I’m not).
Yes, of course, a drama may disappoint you. You may think it’s interesting and then it’s not as good as you thought, and you may leave it after a few episodes. And, on the other side, you might watch, after the recommendation of a friend or after reading a review, another drama, which you never thought would appeal to you, and actually love it. These things can easily happen. But I don’t think they are a reason for changing the general way of doing things.
There was a thread some time ago (it must be buried somewhere, I’m too lazy to search for it), where someone asked Viki support if it makes sense to submit multiple requests, and a support person answered that no, they see who you are (I don’t know if this means IP or viki account or whatever) and only one is counted, so submitting more than once is working for nothing.
I often thought I would like to ask that question as well and have a definitive official answer (I like to make sure of things myself), so that, if it confirms this information, I can show it to all those channel managers who prompt us to submit multiple requests, and all the people who do this tiresome task dozens of times, thinking that they are helping.
In case they reply, please share, it would be bad if Viki doesn’t take into consideration requests because they think it’s mostly spam!
It would be nice if there was a feature in the home page, like a poll, where logged in users could just answer yes/no in a list of dramas that Viki considers licensing. The most popular ones win, so it would be more fair. That would be easier for the viewers, it would show a clearer rate of viewership and also we wouldn’t have to use a form… which is a bit outdated.
one I have watched this week, Ten mile peach blossoms! name a few, ice fantasy, nirvana in fire , scarlet heart,how long did it take for them to get licensed, maybe if they advertised the new shows, people might get an interest
I have glanced through that fan channel, and wondered why that was there, so these shows are in so called limbo just waiting for licenses and volunteer subs? and please I do not mean to sound like I am knocking Viki, far from it.
Irmar; how can they test the waters if we don’t know the drama is here? and I do agree, they do need to test the waters before spending x amount of dollars on this,
so if thats the case, how do we request for those licenses? and please explain that fan channel to me.oh yeah, isn’t the Chinese the ones that like Viki, Drama fever, Hulu, Netflix, have a hard time acquiring licenses for Chinese dramas? (this is the answer I got from Hulu some time ago, when I asked a question about Asian dramas,) sorry that this one is so long, yeah i’d love to see more C hinese/ Asian dramas here on viki and the others mentioned.
I’m a big fan of Kdramas that why I buy viki pass .but all I can see on viki is chinese;taiwan;etc dramas, and all new upcoming kdramas is not available on my country (Belgium) I send many times a day for request the title of the drama but nothings happen! is beter I stop or should I wait little bite longer?
Really? If you look here at Discussions people were complaining because viki ditched most Taiwan lacorns and a great number of popular Chinese dramas also disappeared - and more disappear by the day. They have been complaining quite loudly.
I wouldn’t have known otherwise, since I almost never watch those, my preference is Korean. But, to be fair, those other countries’ dramas are the minority.
I did a small experiment for you, and you can reproduce it. I went to “Explore” and put as year 2015. Then, as country, I put Taiwan, then China, then Korea. And counted the available licensed dramas. Then I repeated this for 2016 and 2017.
2015:
Taiwan: 29 shows, of which 3 variety.
China: 41 dramas
Japan: 15 dramas
Korea: 85 shows (of which 7 variety) and 3 or 4 films
2016:
Taiwan: 16 dramas,
China: 43 dramas
Japan: none (only 1 fan channel which was never licensed)
Korea: 80 shows (of which 3 or 4 variety) and 3 films
2017 (so far):
Taiwan: 3 dramas
China: 14 dramas
**Japan:**none
Korea: 22 dramas so far, of which 7 on air and 2 coming soon plus 1 film and of course a number of fan channels awaiting license*.
Numbers don’t lie. So your statement that “all you see is Chinese, Taiwan etc. dramas” is incorrect.
I don’t think you really want us to do this little game for all years since the beginning of viki.
(*) ABOUT FAN CHANNELS
As I wrote above, I am not counting unlicensed Fan Channels. But there is a difference between fan channels for upcoming series, whose license viki may or may not get, and fan channels of old series, whose license has expired and viki is probably not interested in renewing, or which never had a license to begin with.
Viki has announced that ALL the old fan channels will be taken off by this summer. And it seems that the majority are Chinese series.See this thread https://discussions.viki.com/t/r-i-p-fan-channels/15406/66 from which I’m copying this useful info:
If they are upcoming dramas, there are more chances that the Korean ones will get licensed. 1) there is more demand 2) it’s easier to get the license for a number of reasons (dedicated websites for Chinese content etc.). For instance, “While You Were Sleeping” will air in September and, given that it is a much awaited Lee Jung Suk vessel, viki is sure to fight hard to gain the license. And it’s probably the same for “The King Loves”, with Im Siwan, which will air in July._
Here is another useful post about why viki buys less Chinese dramas:
As for Japanese dramas and the lack thereof, it has been discussed in another thread, from which I copy this useful info:
P.S. It’s not useful to post multiple license requests. Viki staff have explained to us that they see the IP of the person sending the request, and even if you send 100 requests, they will count as one.
I understand your frustration about many dramas not being licensed for Europe. I had the same frustration, and that’s why I became a volunteer here, to be able to view (almost) everything without restrictions. I think it’s a good idea to give it a try.
I really want the Chinese show Ten Deadly Sins to be licensed…there is already a fan channel and I clicked on the license and am following too…I have searched everywhere for English subtitles but can only find it in French or Mandarin…I only found the fan page when I typed the title in the search box…Did they ever have the CM’s send out emails about this show like they do the other shows?
The Ten Deadly Sins is a web drama and for whatever reason might be, getting the license for web dramas is especially hard. There are only very few web dramas in Viki, so I wouldn’t put my hopes up too high It’s very sad, there are a lot of really good web dramas international fans probably will never get to see.
It’s very sad, there are a lot of really good web dramas international fans probably will never get to see.