Exploring TVING as a foreigner in Korea: A Naver Plus member's experience

Today let's take a look at TVING from the point of view of a foreigner living in Korea. Is it worth it? Does it have any English content? I screenshot my experience using it, specifically under the free plan you get as a Naver Plus member. 

Intro

TVING (티빙) is a streaming TV service in Korea, originally part of entertainment arm of the massive CJ conglomerate (itself originally part of Samsung) but now strategically partnered with Naver. It's one of the two main Netflix-style entertainment streaming services in Korea, the other being SK's Wavve (웨이브). Of course many Koreans also just use Netflix. 

You may have seen that Coupang (the Amazon-like shopping site of Korea) offers something akin to Amazon Prime, called Coupang Play. That too is a free streaming service you get access to if you (or your spouse) is a Coupang Wow (premium) member. I wrote a post about that here: Taking a look at Coupang Play (screenshot tour). 

Naver also has a premium membership option called Naver Plus (네이버플러스 멤버십) which has a variety of benefits and perks, including cheaper/faster shipping on Naver Shopping, increased point accumulation with Naver Pay, discounts on products, increased storage space in Naver cloud, etc. It also offers a "digital contents" bonus every month, where you choose one perk from a list. 

Naver Plus digital contents choice selection

This included, last time I checked:

• Unlimited music streaming on one device from Naver Vibe
• Unlimited broadcast programs streaming from TVing (티빙)
• Unlimited sports streaming from SPOTV Now
• 49 free "cookies" to use at Naver Webtoons
• Discount on recent movies at SeriesON (시리즈온)
• Unlimited other movie streamings at SeriesON

Previously, I took a look at using the free music streaming from Naver Vibe: A look at Naver's music streaming app, Naver Vibe (with screenshots). 

Today, since you can switch this monthly digital perk every month, I decided to switch to the free TVING offering and check it out. 

Actually the main reason for this was that I noticed there is a documentary out on the Itaewon Halloween Crush tragedy last year, but as it's produced by the Paramount+ streaming service in USA, it isn't available to watch in Korea due to licensing issues. 

That was mildly interesting since Paramount+ partnered with TVING to share content and a large amount of Paramount+ shows are available in Korea under TVING. So I decided to take a look and see what exactly is available. 

Activating a TVING subscription via Naver Plus

TVING has no free plan currently, so the cheapest way to get access is as I mentioned, through a Naver Plus membership if you already have it. Otherwise it starts at around 8,000 won/month for a basic package. 

TVING standard prices

So if you (or your wife) are Naver Plus members, try it that way. If it's your spouse's or roommate's account that has the premium membership, you'll first need to list your own account as a family member. 

Naver Plus membership digital contents choices

Once you've done so, or if it's your own account, go into your monthly "digital contents" settings and choose the red TVING option. 

Choosing TVING

You'll be shown some details and a chance to confirm. This is free standard plan, usable on one device. No sharing. And no movies either; only TV programs. Yeah. Not ideal, but it's "free" so don't expect too much. 

Confirmation

If this is your first time using TVING, it pops up a confirmation informing you that you'll need to create a TVING account for this to take effect. Just click OK. 

Sharing basic Naver data with TVING

Naver brings up this message in English explaining that it will share my basic data with TVING. OK.

Creating a TVING account

The next page is the creation of the TVING account. Click OK to the required (필수) stuff. Be a smart consumer and don't click the optional (선택) stuff. 

TVING onboarding

You're brought to the TVING onboarding page. It brags about its original series, movies, and foreign programs, but actually none of those are available in this free package as we'll soon see. 

Somehow it didn't bother to log me in after the account creation, so you now need to click the red bar to continue.

Loggin in

It wants you to log-in. Since it's my Naver Plus membership that is giving me access, I thought it best to login via Naver account.

Age verification

Apparently I didn't click the age verification thing at first, so now it wants me to confirm that I am over 14 years old. Check and OK. After that, I'm in. 

TVING x Naver Plus Membership account type

Just to verify, I immediately went to account settings. Sure enough, it lists the special condition of my account as a Naver Plus member. There is also a banner there suggesting I click it to see my benefits as a Naver Plus member of TVING. Let's click it and see.

TVING x Naver Plus benefits

Ah ha. Now here is a useful image that will prove disapointing. Here it highlights the special conditions for the Naver Plus version of the membership. 1 profile, 720p streaming, and the most important part:

모든 방송 무제한 (영화, 파라마운트+ 콘텐츠 제외]

You read that right. All streaming is free... except for movies and Paramount+ content. 

The fine print below verifies that.

Premium upgrade recommendation

But don't worry! You can upgrade for 9,000 won/month to the premium TVING plan and watch everything (except specific pay-per-view content). Hmm. I'd rather not. 

So this discovery made this whole process seem pointless as my main goal was to watch Paramount+ stuff, like Star Trek Discovery. 

What's available on TVING: Korean and foreign Paramount+ contents

That didn't stop me from browsing around and trying. 

If you're reading, you probably are curious what kind of content is available. Here's a full size screenshot of the standard homepage. Zoom in and you can get a good idea of the Korean content available:

Korean content on TVING

If you're a mainly English speaker, you might want to see what Paramount Plus content is (in theory) available, assuming you pay for a plan. 

Here's another full size screenshot of the Paramount+ content available:

Paramount+ Content on TVING

Anyway, I'd come so far, so might as well poke around a bit. Let's see if there's anything good to watch. 

UPDATE MAY 2024: 

Don't get too excited about that last part. News articles this month announced that all Paramount+ content will be removed from TVING as of June 2024, ending a two years period where this content was available. 

Apparently although TVING was growing customers recently, it's not enough to offset costs and I wonder if cutting expensive rights to Paramount+ content is a way to refocus on that core Korean domestic content. 

(Original post continues below.)

Trying to watch English content via Naver Plus plan

Oh, Harrison Ford. Always an indication of quality content.

Movie selection on TVING

Here's a movie called "긴급명령". Must be from before the great foreign movie titles shift of the early 2000s, before foreign movies were just transliterated into Hangul and back when they actually translated them. 긴급 is an emergency, and 명령 is a command or order. Emergency Command? Hmm. Had to go look it up. Oh! Of course! 1994's "Clear and Present Danger." I felt ashamed for not recognizing his face there. 

Let's try to watch it...

Paywall

Darn it. Hit with a paywall. 

Foreign sci-fi section on TVING 

That's too bad because there looks like a lot of good content here. There's the Sci-Fi section. All good stuff. And every single one of them hits me with a paywall. Passengers, with Chris Pratt and Jennifer Laurence, is one of my favorites, and it's also on Coupang Play so luckily I could watch it there. 

Octonauts on TVING

One exception was the kids stuff. English language kids programming was available. Here's the Octonauts with Korean subtitles. Cute how the subtitles match the font of the show itself. 

It seemed like everything marked with a DRM was unavailable, so I kept searching for one that wasn't.

Russian movie on TVING

Here was a Russian movie, "The Last Frontier" without that mark. Let's try that. 

Nope. Only the preview is available. 

They weren't kidding. No movies, and no Paramount+ stuff. As I mentioned they had Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Lower Decks, and plenty of other Paramount content, but all was paywalled for me. Most Korean shows played just fine. 

Special upgrade for Naver Plus members

Now if you do want that English language Paramount+ content, you can pay the 8,000won/month fee for a basic account. But if you have this Naver Plus membership already, they've tied in a special upgrade option just for you. 

Special TVING upgrade options for Naver Plus members 

Spend 3,000 won/month more to upgrade to their standard basic account, and then you'll get full access to their library of content. 

So if you want to watch Yellowstone, the Top Gun series, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and all those newer versions, etc., you could do a lot worse than drop 3,000 won for them. 

Update: well just a matter of days after posting this, I get an email saying the price to upgrade from a Naver Plus based membership to normal membership has gone up. It'll now be a 4,800 won upgrade to get Paramount+ content:

Final thoughts

For me, when I get home, I want to be entertained in English because I don't want to have to think or pay attention. So overall I think TVING isn't a great choice for me. If you love these specific shows and your family has Naver Plus already, it could be worth the 3,000won to binge watch them and then cancel. But for how infrequently I watch stuff, I'll just stick with putting a Coupang Play movie on in the background. I've pretty much exhausted their limited English content at this point, but it's mostly background noise anyway. 

TVING recommended in Korean version of iOS App Store

TL;DR:

Not really worth it. Naver Plus plan doesn't include Paramount+ (i.e. English) content. You'd need to pay 3,000won/month more for that. 

Which ever service you use, happy watching.