In mid October, viewers of Asian dramas fired up their DramaFever app…and couldn’t get it to work. Well, much to their surprise, it wasn’t a server interruption; it was a service shut down.
The Downfall of DramaFever
DramaFever had just celebrated its ninth birthday back in August. Viewers could watch shows for free with ads or join for about $5 a month to remove ads. While DramaFever primarily focused on Korean live action dramas, it also showed Japanese and other Asian series. Some of these were even based on Japanese properties like Boys Over Flowers. Recent additions to DramaFever included The Bachelorette and the Australian version of the show. While it originally launched with money by investors, SoftBank acquired DramaFever in 2014; they sold it two years later to Warner Bros, reportedly for a loss.
Just a week or so before DramaFever shut down, the CEO of WarnerMedia announced plans for a new streaming service, no doubt to challenge Disney as well as established platforms like Netflix. Variety, for instance, assumed that DramaFever would be one of the services to be available along with the headliner HBO.
Instead, of course, we know that Warner Bros Digital Networks (WarnerMedia) cut DramaFever off permanently. Variety then reported that this was due to increased licensing cost, rising as much as 25%. Subscribers will be refunded, but some users report that notices are slow or nonexistent.
An Expected or Unexpected Ending?
However, this news really seemed to come out of nowhere. In late September, DramaFever teamed up with Yarn, an app that creates short stories through faux text messages. The plan called for some of these stories to be created based on some of DramaFever’s catalog, keeping the hype and interest up beyond a series’ one-season run.
At the beginning of October, Warner was soliciting résumés for a marketing director for DramaFever, although as part of the WB Digital Labs team, and it was up at least until October 12th, a week before the platform closed. The listing clearly names the position for the DramaFever brand.
Other listings haven’t been updated to show DramaFever’s closure either.
Variety reports that about 20 employees will be laid off, so it’s odd that they would have even mentioned DramaFever if the company was about to be shut down.
With that in mind, DramaFever viewers should probably have seen some of this coming. Forbes reports that new episodes were postponed, and the platform’s social media pages were silent as of October 14th. As of this writing, shows were still available on VRV, but I’m sure they’ll be pulled shortly.
The Changing Streaming Market
No doubt that what we’re seeing is the further evidence of companies drawing lines in the sand, consolidating all their prime content to have viewers come to them instead of vice versa. At the very least, it seemed like it would make sense for DramaFever to stick around to at least be a part of VRV and/or their streaming service. Digiday reports that the service’s fanbase had plateaued and was not “ever able to turn a full-year profit”, but I know plenty of people who spent a lot of time on DramaFever. According to that same article though, 400,000 viewers a month wasn’t worth the effort.
Plus, it’s hard for a streaming service to grow if new content dries up or is slow to be added. The Bachelorette, I imagine, is not something in high demand among those who want to watch Asian dramas. DramaFever, judging from reactions on the web, seemed to have a loyal fanbase, so it is surprising a rate increase or a subscription-only model wasn’t tried first before closing. I imagine selling wasn’t an option considering it was already considered a part of WB Digital Labs.
There’s another thing to consider though: Crunchyroll. Crunchyroll’s drama selection is limited compared to their animated offerings, and unlike their manga selection, not much is being added. It’s possible WarnerMedia will fold some of DramaFever’s offerings into Crunchyroll, particularly if there are any missing Japanese live action shows. The company may not believe there needs to be two digital channels focused on Asian content, even if the main focus for each is very different.
Crunchyroll users may also be concerned that the site may undergo some changes with WarnerMedia’s new service on the horizon. Disney mentions the possibility of having a bundle with their streaming service, ESPN, and Hulu, and WarnerMedia already has a geek-flavored version of this with VRV. 
I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s an option to add-on Crunchyroll and/or VRV to the Warner streaming service, as lots of families could watch anything from anime to DC Comics-related material to news from CNN on one subscription.
Plus, considering Nickelodeon, a major corporation, signed onto VRV, I doubt they’d put their shows on the service just for it to change in a year. Plus, there’s the new Ellation Studios that’s on the horizon, and HiDive is joining in place of FUNimation. (More on that next week.)
Still, the situation with DramaFever should provide a stark reminder that what’s here today can be gone tomorrow. Even though it may have been dealing with declining revenue, it’s still a loss for many Asian drama watchers across the globe.