It’s been five months now since China’s SARFT crackdown on the simultaneously airing of overseas dramas on Chinese video portals, placing the same onerous restrictions as overseas shows aired on television. It’s overstating the impact this has had on K-dramas since China was far and away the largest market, with the advent of officially licensed live-streamed K-dramas starting in 2013 getting kiboshed by the heavy hand of SARFT. I was waiting to see if KBS would try to do something around upcoming K-drama Producer since it was so high profile with the star power and the expectation.

This week KBS pulled back the curtains on Producer licensing and revealed the drama will be streamed live on Line TV in Taiwan. That might actually skirt the SARFT restrictions which only covers Mainland China, but then again, I don’t know if the great firewall of China prevents the download of the Line TV app. Producer has apparently set new records for overseas sales thanks to the Hallyu power of Kim Soo Hyun. Producer got a one week premiere delay so will meet the audience on May 15th. Check out the super cute couples posters of the main cast where everyone switches partners.