A 2021 Drama Licensing Deal Was Kept Secret for Five Years. The Embargo Just Ended.
Samhwa Networks signed a $5.6 million global streaming license for its drama Now, Showtime! in 2021 and was allowed to withhold the amount. The filing disclosing it, five years later, states why: the embargo period ran out.
AI-assisted, human-reviewed sourcing. Figures are pulled programmatically from the official sources listed at the end of this article and checked by an editor before publication.
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Samhwa Networks (KRX: 046390) filed an amendment on 23 September, 2026 to a contract it originally disclosed on 27 September, 2021 — a global streaming license for its 16-episode drama Now, Showtime!, sold to PCCW Vuclip, a Singapore-based OTT operator. The original filing withheld the contract amount under a confidentiality request from the counterparty. This amendment discloses it, five years later, because the embargo period is ending.
The filing, as stated
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Original contract date | 27 September 2021 |
| Contract amount, now disclosed | ₩6,617,520,000 (stated as USD 5,600,000) |
| Revenue base used | ₩29,296,600,231 (2020 consolidated) |
| Ratio | 22.6% |
| Counterparty | PCCW Vuclip (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. |
| Counterparty’s business | OTT streaming service |
| License territory | Worldwide, excluding certain countries |
| License term | 27 September 2021 to 26 September 2031 |
| Stated reason for this filing | Embargo period ending |
| Embargo deadline | 26 September 2026 |
We recomputed the ratio independently from the two raw figures in the filing and it matches the filing’s own stated 22.6% to one decimal place.
Why a 2021 number is showing up in 2026
Korean disclosure rules let a company withhold a contract amount for a period when the counterparty requests confidentiality, with a stated deadline for when the embargo lifts. This filing is that lift: the original 27 September 2021 contract for Now, Showtime! stayed on the books as “amount withheld” for nearly five years. The amendment filed 23 September 2026 — three days before the 26 September 2026 deadline stated in the original filing — fills in the number.
The ratio itself (22.6%) is measured against Samhwa Networks’ 2020 revenue, because that was the company’s most recent annual revenue figure at the time the original contract was filed in 2021. It is not a comparison to the company’s current-year revenue.
What this filing does and doesn’t tell you
The filing confirms a ten-year global license (2021-2031) and its original value, and states the counterparty relationship as “none” beyond the licensing deal. It does not report how Now, Showtime! performed on PCCW Vuclip’s platform, nor whether Samhwa Networks has signed comparable licenses since. What it does confirm, directly from the filing’s own text, is the mechanical reason a five-year-old contract amount becomes public on a specific date: not a new event, but an embargo clock running out.
This is not investment advice. Figures are drawn from official regulatory filings and are presented for data-quality reporting, not as a trading signal.
Data & Verification Notes
- Data as of
- Sources
- Financial Services Commission (Republic of Korea) / DART — Amended single sale/supply contract filing, rcept_no 20260923900097, filed 23 September 2026 (amending the original filing, rcept_no dated 27 September 2021)
- Cross-checks
- The amendment's own stated reason for filing (field 3, 정정사유): '유보기한 종료에 따른 유보사항 공시' — disclosure of the withheld item due to the embargo period ending.
- Original contract amount, now disclosed: ₩6,617,520,000 (stated as USD 5,600,000 converted at the 27 September 2021 exchange rate of ₩1,181.70/USD, per the filing's own note).
- Most recent revenue figure used for the ratio, per the filing: ₩29,296,600,231 (Samhwa Networks' consolidated 2020 financial statements — the year in effect when the original 2021 filing was made, not a current-year figure). ₩6,617,520,000 / ₩29,296,600,231 = 22.59%, matching the filing's own stated 22.6%.
- The embargo deadline stated in the filing (field 9, 유보기한): 2026-09-26. This amendment was filed 2026-09-23, three days before that deadline.
- Counterparty stated in the filing: PCCW Vuclip (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., described in the filing as operating an OTT streaming service. The filing states no other relationship between the two companies.
- Excluded figures
- What the drama Now, Showtime! itself performed commercially — this filing is a licensing-revenue disclosure, not a viewership or ratings report.
- Why the original 2021 filing was granted a five-year embargo — the filing states only the counterparty's confidentiality request (계약 상대방의 비밀유지 요청) as the reason, with no further detail.
- Whether Samhwa Networks' 2020 revenue base (used for the ratio) differs materially from its current revenue — we did not pull the company's most recent financial statements for this piece, since the filing itself specifies 2020 as the reference year for this particular ratio.
- Instruments
- 046390
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