If you live in Europe, then it’s nothing new for dramas to be gained and lost like it’s a poker game. One day you’re watching an episode, only to discover that the next one isn’t available anymore. No one talks about this, but here in Europe cable operators are both powerful and popular due to the entrenched idea that Television and Internet are two separate things. I suppose this is the reason why the big Korean companies prefer to license them, not streaming services like Viki.
Actually that didn’t happen as much before the launch of Kocowa, with the exception of dramas that were licencesed exclusively on other platforms that simply paid more than Viki. (See DramaFever.) I’ve only been on Viki for like 2 years though, so maybe I just didn’t notice it?
I think that at the moment we are in a transitional period and we’ll see a lot of this. Kocowa was launched like a year ago. DramaFever has just shut down. Netflix has been licencing K-Drama like there’s no tommorow. (In the past week they added A LOT of old(ish) but AAA K-Dramas in my region. - I’ve seen most of then on Viki though 
) Not to mention other streaming sites (not widely, or at all, available in Europe) have started showing interest in K-Dramas.
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It angers me that Europe is always left behind.
You want to watch legal, but 
When viki will loose more license that it isn’t good to be on viki anymore… -
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I always wait it out. Sometimes they re-license the dramas for Europe later. I often skip watching the newer dramas anyways, so I binge on the older dramas I haven’t yet seen (apparently there are still many). Sometimes I’m lucky and the drama I wanted to see has been re-licensed and in other cases I forget I wanted to watch that drama anyways. It works for me, but I understand that it can be frustrating for the people who actually want to see the dramas asap.
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Viki and Netflix are the only legal sites in Germany for Asian dramas. There a tons of illegal sites and you could say, okay, that’s their risk, if they are streaming dramas without a proper license. But since April 2018 streaming is illegal for private users, too. The European Court in Brussels, Belgium, has decided, that streaming is now illegal and forbidden. Right now, there are not that many instruments for pursuing all those private users, because while streaming your IP is safed just temporarely and as soon as the episode or movie is over, your IP isn’t safed anymore. I’m not talking about sharing services, just streaming sites, so if you don’t download anything on those illegal sites or have an account, where all your streamed dramas are visible, you probably have no problems. But I guess, it’s just a matter of time and lawyers, specialised in cease-and-desist orders and the legal streaming sites will find a way to pursue those private users. This is a profitable and big cake for them.
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Streaming is illegal too now? I thought only downloading and uploading was.
Anyway I’m one of those people who prefers to watch things legally but with the limited options we have it’s not always possible and not watching a Kdrama is not an option as nobody decides for me what to watch and what not to watch.
And what annoys me too is that a lot of American viewers (not all of course) don’t realize how spoiled they are with so many options to choose from and then still complain when one of them doesn’t have what they want while they have a legal plan B or C.
All in all those whole region thing is an ancient idea in times they all talk about globalization…
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Streaming from sources, which are illegal. Streaming from legal sites is okay.
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Big companies don’t like the idea of Globalisation, you know. I mean, why license just one global region, when you can licence a hundred fractured ones?!
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That’s the thing at one point they are like “Look how great we are, the whole world knows Kdrama!! Isn’t that amazing?!” and at the other side “Let’s exclude that region because they don’t need to watch it”
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In all honesty, they’re not excluding anything. In Europe, cable operators are still a thing. They’re popular too. KBS as a channel that you press on your TV remote is very big here, so it’s clearly better to licence cable operators, not Viki.
Maybe in some European countries. In Germany you need a satellite dish for KBS. We have Netflix and SKY, but SKY is more for sport channels and soccer, although it has some entertainment package. Pay TV channels mostly are available over packages from the big providers like Telekom, Unitymedia, Vodafone, who sell TV, internet, telephone flats and you can add packages with different, international channels. Amazon prime offers series and movies, but if you talk about Asian ones, you can only rely on Netflix and Viki.
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Well, my parents are subscribed to UPC Broadband. It’s pretty popular across Europe. They offer the usual channels, national and international, with add-ons for stuff like HBO. Then there is the inclusion of KBS. Also, the national channels licence a bunch of Kdramas, since they’re insanely popular here.
i dont even know this upc
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ah thx. it´s not available here, so i don´t know from this… logo looks like unitymedia, which somejuwels mentioned before but unitymedia is not available all over germany
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Yes, UPC and Unitymedia are under the same company. Oh, it’s not? I thought it was the German branch.
Unitymedia is a German branch, but not available nationwide. And they offer not a single korean drama. You can find a very few on Amazon Prime. UPC is the broadband working mainly for internet and phone.
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Our Dutch provider did merge with UPC but none of their digital packages offer any Korean or Japanese channels. I did spot a Chinese and Indonesian channel once but that was taken down soon and the only time we had NHK was when the tsunami hit Japan. But even when you get the most expensive package they only have a few main channels in a language if you are lucky. So everyone who wants to watch tv from an another country or maybe their home country if they live abroad either depend on the internet with their streaming sites or satellite.
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But… what about subtitles? If they air at the same time as in Korea, there’s no time to make subtitles.
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The only place I found K dramas so far besides VIKI is Netflix.
Our TV stations only show US and EU shows.
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