CJ ENM has appointed former Fox executive Steve W Chung as its Global Chief Growth Officer.“We are at a time where our company is experiencing exponential growth and seeking opportunities to further expand our business globally," Kang Ho-sung, CEO of CJ ENM, said. "Based on his leadership in driving the growth of companies in Hollywood and Silicon Valley, we are thrilled to have Steve join our team as one of our key executives to position CJ ENM as a global entertainment company of the future.”
Based in Los Angeles, Chung will assume his new role immediately, at which point he will be repsonsible for overseeing CJ ENM’s global strategy and accelerating its international expansion plans. Before accepting the position, Chung contributed to Fox Corporation, where he had been chief growth officer since May 2021. Before that, he served as chief digital officer at Fox TV Stations. The exec also previously founded and was CEO of Frankly, a publicly traded media tech company in San Francisco, and worked as a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley and an executive producer in China.
News of the appointment was confirmed during the BCWW conference here in Seoul, comes as CJ ENM’s expansion plans get into gear. The Korean firm recently acquired a majority stake in LA-based Endeavor Content and sold Nordic distributor Eccho Rights to a German company, while the global roll-out of its unscripted format I Can See Your Voice is continuing. The singing show has been a major talking point at BCWW, with one panel dedicated to the format’s local productions in 27 countries, while another focused on the US coproductions and commissions of CJ ENM’s quasi-independent production subsidiary Studio Dragon.
The studio’s global division head, Hyun Park, told BCWW delegates yesterday about its slate of global Korean-language dramas, including 10-parter The Big Door Prize, which is being produced by CJ ENM, Studio Dragon and LA-based Skydance Television for Apple TV+. “CJ ENM’s unrivaled position as Asia’s an entertainment powerhouse is a perfect launchpad for its next growth phase on the world stage," Chung said. "On the heels of its Oscar honors with Parasite and its majority acquisition of Endeavor Content, I am incredibly excited to work with the talented team to further drive and cement CJ ENM’s position as an indispensable and diverse voice in the media industry.”
CJ ENM has involved itself with US firms for many year, securing investments in Skydance Media and DreamWorks. The company currently has a roll out of its OTT platform, TVING, and last summer said it would invest more than ₩5tn ($4.5bn) in content creation over the next five years to fuel global growth. Studio Dragon is also developing several other projects in the US. The Seoul-based media company recently sold Nordic distributor Eccho Rights this summer following three years of ownership and completed its $785m deal to acquire a majority stake in Endeavor Content in 2021.