KT StudioGenie (KTSG) established in 2021, is KT Group’s strategic media control tower, spanning IP development, production and global distribution. Its acclaimed titles include the global hit Extraordinary Attorney Woo and the successful multi-season franchise New Recruit. As the “Next IP Studio,” it leverages AI-powered production technologies to expand creative possibilities and enhance efficiency. FAST has become a core pillar of that global distribution strategy.

Since launching its first FAST channel in August 2025, KTSG has built out a portfolio spanning domestic and international linear channels. In 2026, KTSG selected Amagi as its cloud playout partner for a zero-downtime migration of that portfolio, and used the transition to launch Genie Shorts (Genie K-Short) — a linear FAST channel built natively for 9:16 vertical micro-dramas, among the first of its kind on major connected TV platforms.

The challenge

Before FAST, KTSG's channel business faced two structural limits: heavy reliance on domestic pay TV distribution, where a channel's performance depended on channel numbering and carriage terms in an increasingly mature market, and a library of roughly 3,000 films plus drama and short-form titles that lacked an efficient path to continuous international audiences.

Moving into FAST raised an internal question familiar to many content owners: would supplying titles to free, ad-supported channels devalue existing sales windows or complicate holdback terms with producers? KTSG addressed this by defining service territories carefully, reserving key sales markets for separate negotiation, and running FAST as a standalone revenue business rather than a secondary outlet for older titles.

On the technology side, KTSG's incumbent playout provider had no native support for 9:16 vertical linear delivery or automated multilingual subtitle burn-in — both central to KTSG's push into short-form and international syndication — and reach into tier-one connected TV platforms outside Korea was limited.

Why Amagi

KTSG ran a competitive evaluation across providers on pricing, scalability, and profitability. Scalability decided it: Amagi's single playout architecture meant no incremental playout cost when KTSG added a new platform — a critical factor for a company planning to add platforms and territories quickly. Amagi's global platform network was an important secondary consideration.

The solution

• Zero-downtime migration: KTSG's 16 channels were staged and validated on Amagi platform in parallel with the incumbent broadcasts, then cut over in three batches, core domestic movie and theme channels first, then drama and entertainment channels, then the international feeds alongside the Genie Shorts launch.
• Unified scheduling and playout: Amagi PLANNER automates scheduling and SCTE-35 break signalling; Amagi NOW 3.0 runs zone-based redundant cloud playout with dynamic graphics and subtitle burn-in.
•  Global distribution: Amagi CONNECT packages and delivers the channels to Samsung TV Plus and LG Channels in Korea and internationally, and to Plex.

Inside Genie Shorts: building for vertical, natively

Genie Shorts curates 90-to-120-second Korean micro-drama episodes into a continuous linear FAST stream. It launched with an initial batch of 73 titles, going live on LG Channels Korea in August 2026, with expansion to Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan, and the UAE following shortly after; Samsung TV Plus and territories in  Europe are planned next.

Delivering a 9:16 channel on 16:9 screens means managing the pillarbox margins on either side of the frame. Amagi's platform keeps the vertical video at full fidelity - no cropping, scaling, or stretching- while a dedicated vertical graphics layer carries channel branding, titles, and episode count-ins built specifically for the vertical frame. Subtitles are burned in from source files during playout for consistent sync across devices.

AI and localization

KTSG is also piloting Amagi's AI capabilities for subtitling and translation into English, Japanese, Spanish, Arabic, and Hindi. In KTSG's own analysis, dubbed K-Movie and K-Drama episodes hold roughly 15% more viewing time per airing than subtitled ones, with the gap widening month over month. Under the government-supported 'K-FAST Alliance' dubbing initiative, KTSG has partnered with consortium member ESTsoft to localize short-form dramas into Spanish ahead of a planned Latin American rollout.

The impact

• Migrated 16 linear FAST channels to the cloud on a zero-downtime cutover, moving off KTSG's previous playout vendor.

• Launched Genie Shorts, one of the industry's earliest native 9:16 vertical linear FAST channels, with 73 titles at launch.

• Turned pillarbox margins into new ad inventory through dual side-margin in-content advertising, with no change to the core viewing experience.
• Removed incremental playout cost as a constraint on expansion, shifting platform decisions from cost-led to revenue-led.
• Extended distribution to Samsung TV Plus, LG Channels, and Plex across Korea, the Americas, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East.

What's next

KTSG is targeting North America for its movie, drama, and short-form channels, with discussions under way for additional platforms in Europe, India, and Latin America. Plans include adding genres to the channel lineup, growing the commerce-linked ad model built around vertical short-form content, and using Amagi's AI tools to speed up translation and promo production.