A content production company in its fifth year since founding is grabbing the industry's attention as it knocks on the door of the global market with its own video IP (intellectual property), breaking through the limits of subcontracted production.
The protagonist is Stovecat Studio, founded in 2021 by CEO Kim Myeong-hwan, a former broadcast producer with 30 years of experience. Stovecat Studio has achieved the feat of distributing its flagship documentary work to more than 40 countries worldwide in partnership with the U.K. global distributor TVF International, and it is accelerating its global moves by negotiating distribution contracts for additional works.
The core asset that drew the global market's attention to Stovecat Studio is its "North Korea video IP." Boldly stripping away politics and ideology and approaching it from the perspectives of nature, culture and history to capture the four seasons of the Baekdudaegan and people's daily lives, this content is regarded as a uniquely rare resource unlike anything else in the world. In fact, KBS's 70th anniversary of the armistice special Mother's hometown, Kaema highlands recorded a 4% viewership rating and drew attention before meeting global viewers through TVF International, and this year's KBS Lunar New Year special Latest footage of northern mountains also proved its box office appeal with a 3.5% viewership rating.
The solid competitiveness of this in-house IP was also verified in government reviews. Since 2022, Stovecat Studio has been selected for government content support projects, including the Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA), by passing competitive calls for five consecutive years. The cumulative record reaches as many as nine projects. This year, too, the large documentary The Korean Peninsula Baekdudaegan and the overseas expansion project The four seasons of the closed land both passed the gateways and are in active production.
Not only in documentaries but also in the development of entertainment format IPs, results continue: the science entertainment program Goldberg is negotiating entry into global FAST channels, and the game show format Hidden has signed an overseas sales agreement. In addition, the survival format Hide-and-seek has finished production and is about to air, so three self-developed entertainment formats are each knocking on overseas markets via different routes.
Having built credibility in broadcast production by regularly producing more than 28 episodes a year of MBC's current affairs documentary True Story for four consecutive years, Stovecat Studio has continued collaborations with more than 10 public institutions, including the Ministry of Unification and the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. Building on this foundation, it obtained certification for establishing a corporate research institute in February 2025, and in June of the same year it gained recognition for its global expansion capabilities and even received the rare venture company (innovation growth type) certification for a content production company.
Kim Myeong-hwan, CEO of Stovecat Studio, said, "Passing fierce competitive calls for five years without fail is not the success of a single genre but the result of consistently being recognized for the fundamentals of planning and production," and added, "The asset we consider most important is the North Korea video IP captured from the perspectives of nature, culture and history, and the next goal is to grow it into content that works in the global market."
[Photo] Provided by Stovecat Studio
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