Tving officials make a presentation / Courtesy of Tving

Korea's antitrust regulator said Monday it has approved the merger between Tving and Seezn ― two major homegrown streaming service providers.

Tving, controlled by entertainment giant CJ ENM, said earlier it will absorb Seezn, a streaming service operator run by local telecom giant KT.

"We have concluded that (the merger) will not limit competition in the market for the supply of content to over-the-top platforms," the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said in a press release.

The FTC said U.S.-based Netflix stood as the biggest player in the Korean ready-made content streaming market by taking up 38.2 percent, followed by homegrown Wavve with 14.37 percent in the January-September period of 2022.

Tving took the third spot with 13 percent, followed by Coupang Play and Disney+ with 11.8 percent and 5.61 percent, respectively. Seezn was the smallest player surveyed with around 5-percent market share.

The FTC said the merged entity is not likely to raise its subscription fees, considering competition with other players at home and abroad.

The FTC also pointed out the merger will not likely make CJ companies provide their content only to the new platform, as they earn two-thirds of their revenue through the supply to other streaming services.

The new merged platform would also need to purchase content from other players, considering customers tend to choose streaming service providers with a more diversified portfolio, the FTC said. (Yonhap)