Actor Byeon Woo-seok (left) and singer-actor IU, who co-star as Grand Prince Ian and Seong Hee-ju in the MBC Friday-Saturday drama ‘21st-Century Grand Prince Consort’, make a hand heart at the production presentation. Yonhap News

It was confirmed on the 21st that the MBC Friday-Saturday drama ‘21st-Century Grand Prince Consort’ had been selected as a finalist in the drama long-form category of the Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA) 2025 ‘OTT-specialized Content Production Support (IP Acquisition Type)’ program.

According to this outlet reporting, ‘21st-Century Grand Prince Consort’ was submitted by Kakao Entertainment in the drama long-form category for KOCCA support. The program totals 7 projects and $5,625,000 (7,500,000,000 KRW), and in the drama category 89 applications were filed, with 4 titles ultimately selected. The competition ratio was about 22 to 1.

KOCCA defines the purpose of the program as “supporting the production of high-quality broadcast video content based on OTT platforms and helping the executing institutions secure IP rights.” According to the notice, selected institutions receive 70% of the confirmed grant after the agreement is signed as the first installment, and the remaining 30% after passing a midterm review as the second installment. Large and mid-sized enterprises must allocate at least 20% of total project costs, and small production companies at least 10%, as cash self-funding. Kakao Entertainment is a major content subsidiary of Kakao.

However, the confirmed grant amount allocated to ‘21st-Century Grand Prince Consort’ has not yet been disclosed. According to KOCCA, some disbursement has been made, but the final outcome evaluation has not yet taken place; if the project is judged ineligible in the evaluation, the funds may be recovered.

The project period ran from the date the agreement was signed through April 30, the deadline for submitting the final report was May 10, and the outcome evaluation is scheduled to take place in May.

Under Article 43 of the Content Support Project Management Rules, after the outcome evaluation, if the project receives a “fail,” the agreement may be terminated under Article 55, and in that case the entire subsidy and accrued interest must be returned to an account designated by the responsible institution within 30 days of notification.

At present, KOCCA is receiving successive information disclosure requests regarding the evaluation results and the selection process for the project related to ‘21st-Century Grand Prince Consort’.

‘21st-Century Grand Prince Consort’ has been cited as a tentpole drama with a production budget of about $22,500,000 (30,000,000,000 KRW), the largest in MBC history. It concluded with episode 12 on the 16th, and the finale posted a nationwide viewership rating of 13.8% (Nielsen Korea nationwide household standard), marking a series high and the third-highest rating ever for an MBC Friday-Saturday drama.

Kakao Entertainment linked the title across its IP ecosystem. Eleven teams, including artists under Kakao Entertainment (Ujeu·Kiki·Hacheuweibeu), participated in the OST, and an official fan community opened on its proprietary fandom platform Berijeu on the 10th of last month.

Among the outcome evaluation criteria, the ‘Project Content’ item assesses the qualitative completeness of deliverables and market competitiveness on a 20-point scale. Given that controversies were raised during the wrap-up of ‘21st-Century Grand Prince Consort’, there is discussion that the assessment in this item could act as a variable.