They also cited competition from short-form content and AI for audiences and production.
Pay for top-billed stars was the main driver of production costs, Korea IR Service said in a 2025 report, with pay climbing as streaming services competed for audience-drawing talent.
Kim Yong-hee, a professor of business administration at Sun Moon University, said the difficulties the groups cited largely reflected the decline of terrestrial broadcasting rather than the sector as a whole.
Official data showed employment across the content industry edged up to 693,090 in 2025 from 688,122 a year earlier, according to the Korea Creative Content Agency.
Broadcasting employment, however, fell 2.3 per cent in 2024, according to a government survey.
A Netflix Korea spokesperson was reached but did not have an immediate comment.
Netflix launched in South Korea in 2016 and in 2023 pledged to invest US$2.5 billion in the market over four years.