The "Squid Game" Lawsuit: How It Conveys the Insane Popularity of the K-Drama

"Squid Game" needs little introduction. In fact, it was the gateway for many of the uninitiated into the world of Korean drama, and cinema in general. To say the show was successful is something of an understatement. It quickly became Netflix's most-watched series, topping the charts in no fewer than 94 countries, and reaching an incredible 1.65 billion hours of streaming views.

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As we say, readers will know all about "Squid Game" and its impact, but many may not know about how the phenomenal success of the series sparked a lawsuit between Netflix and Korean internet provider ISP SK Broadband. The latter wanted Netflix to pay for the huge surcharge in streaming traffic in South Korea due to the popularity of the show.

SK and Netflix have reached a resolution

SK Broadband launched a lawsuit against Netflix to recoup what they saw as losses due to the "Squid Game" traffic. SK calculated that the popularity of "Squid Game" had cost it somewhere in the region of 27.2 billion Korean won, which is about $23 million USD. After a court case that ran for almost three years, the pair have agreed on a settlement, and, indeed, they will enter into a partnership offering bundled broadband and Netflix services.

Despite the rights and wrongs of the court case, it is clearly a testament to the phenomenal popularity of "Squid Game". The idea of an internet provider suing a platform like Netflix for a surge in traffic is unprecedented. So many things can add to the streaming traffic. It could be popular movies like Parasite, games like Fortnite, slot titles like Thai Paradise, and traffic on Instagram or Kakoa Talk, but to single out one single piece of media as the reason is incredible.

A shared cultural experience

While it tells us a lot about the popularity of "Squid Game", and the growing popularity of Korean movies and television in general, it also says much about our attitude to binge-watching culture. It's not the number of hours people watched "Squid Game", at least not entirely: It was the fact that everyone was watching at the same time. There have been other shows on Netflix that have rivaled "Squid Game" in terms of popularity. But the show was "event television", and we all watched it together.

That last fact is an interesting one. We are often told that streaming platforms have ended the idea of event television – the kind of show that we all talk about at work by the proverbial watercooler. While it's not quite the same as everyone tuning into the same channel at the same time on a Sunday night, there is still a sense of a shared cultural experience when it comes to shows like "Squid Game".

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"Squid Game" is directed by Hwang Dong-hyuk, written by Hwang Dong-hyuk, and features Lee Jung-jae, Park Hae-soo, Jung Ho-yeon, Oh Young-soo, Kim Joo-ryoung, Wi Ha-jun. Broadcasting information in Korea: 2021/09/17, Fri on Netflix.