Yesterday, Variety reported on a new partnership between Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS), Naver, and Shine to create Studio TooN, a webtoon publisher of Japanese and Korean creators that hopes to create web comics for the global market. Previously, Naver had sought a Japanese venture by establishing Studio Dragon Japan, through its Korean partners CJ ENM and its Studio Dragon offshoot.

However, TBS's partnership is a bit different. To give you an idea of the scope of this particular venture, TBS is one of the major terrestrial broadcasting stations in Japan, while Naver is South Korea's largest tech corporation and home to the country's leading web comics platform. Shine Partners is a Tokyo-based manga production house.

In Variety's article, TBS specifically names their goal "to produce TV dramas, anime and other content from the webtoons" as the reason why they decided to found Studio TooN.

This is significant. For television networks, securing engaging IP is key to maintaining and gaining viewership, and in a world with increasing options for where to get your TV programming, maintaining consistently high viewership is key.

With the creation of Studio TooN, it gives TBS another source from which to adapt IP. Previously, TBS had broadcast Japanese dramas that were adaptations of popular Japanese manga, such as both seasons of Hana Yori Dango, Kurosagi, Bloody Monday, and Kakegurui.

Naver also has a track record of having their popular web comics adapted in K-Dramas, with Variety alone mentioning True Beauty, and Hellbound and All of Us Are Dead, the latter two of which were highly popular on Netflix.

With Naver's proven success at generating highly sought-after web comics, TBS's partnership ensures that the Japanese broadcasting station will have a wealth of choice when it comes to adapting IP in the future, especially with the ongoing popularity of South Korean storytelling.

This trend of webtoons becoming the next big source of creative IP for television is interesting and well-worth keeping an eye on. With the large anime library that Netflix currently has, and its steady efforts to slowly adapt them into live action properties (see: live action Cowboy Bebop and the upcoming live action One Piece), there's no telling if American production companies will also follow suit and begin scouring web comics for IP ideas, too.

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Tags: TBS Naver Shine Studio TooN