PER, EPS, PBR and BPS are calculated in-house from the last 4 quarters (2025Q3–2026Q2) · Dividend yield is based on ₩0 per share · Prices as of the 2026-10-02 close
CJ ENM's net profit attributable to owners turned positive in 2025 and Tving posted its first-ever quarterly operating profit, yet delayed TV advertising recovery and uncertainty over the Tving-Wavve merger remain key variables for earnings and valuation.
2025 net profit attributable to owners turned positive at KRW 29.5bn, ending three straight years of losses (2022-2024)
In Q2 2026, Tving posted revenue of KRW 140.7bn (+41.4% YoY) and its first-ever quarterly operating profit of KRW 6.0bn since its 2020 launch
Operating profit plunged to just KRW 1.46bn in Q1 2026 before rebounding to KRW 33.4bn in Q2 2026, underscoring high quarter-to-quarter volatility
The Tving-Wavve merger has stalled for three years since the late-2023 MOU, with KT's consent remaining the key sticking point
The debt ratio stood at 151.5% in 2025, still elevated, though the company is attempting balance-sheet improvement via asset monetization and reduced investment
CJ ENM is a comprehensive content company operating broadcast channels (tvN, Mnet), the OTT platform Tving, drama/film production (Studio Dragon, Fifth Season), music (Mnet Plus and artist IP), and commerce (CJ Onstyle).
The company disclosed that its Media Platform segment posted Q2 2026 revenue of KRW 380bn, up 19.0% year-on-year, and turned to an operating profit of KRW 11bn.
Tving, the segment's core driver, generated revenue of KRW 140.7bn (+41.4% YoY) in the same period with advertising revenue growing 52%, and its Mobile Index MAU surpassed 9.7 million as of June. The music segment is expanding around the K-pop platform Mnet Plus, with Q2 2026 revenue up 167.3% year-on-year.
The film/drama segment, run through Studio Dragon and U.S. subsidiary Fifth Season, posted Q3 2025 revenue of KRW 372.9bn (+48.2% YoY) and turned profitable on the theatrical success of the film "Uhjjeolsuga-eopda" and expanded overseas supply of Fifth Season titles including "The Savant" and "His & Hers." The commerce segment (CJ Onstyle) is pursuing simultaneous top-line and profitability gains centered on mobile live commerce and creator commerce.
In the domestic OTT market, CJ ENM competes with Netflix, Disney+, and Wavve, while Tving has struck brand-hub partnerships with HBO Max and Disney+ to expand distribution across Japan and 17 Asia-Pacific markets.
The business is transitioning from a structure reliant on declining linear TV advertising toward one where digital and platform revenue partially offsets that decline.
| Quarter | Revenue | Operating profit | Op. margin |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025Q2 | ₩1.3T | ₩28.6B | 2.2% |
| 2025Q3 | ₩1.2T | ₩17.6B | 1.4% |
| 2025Q4 | ₩1.4T | ₩86B | 6.0% |
| 2026Q1 | ₩1.3T | ₩1.5B | 0.1% |
| 2026Q2 | ₩1.2T | ₩33.4B | 2.8% |
| Year | Revenue | Operating profit | Net income (parent) | Op. margin | ROE | Debt-to-equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | ₩4.8T | ₩137.4B | -₩120.1B | 2.9% | −3.4% | 137.8% |
| 2023 | ₩4.4T | -₩14.6B | -₩315.9B | −0.3% | −9.8% | 138.2% |
| 2024 | ₩5.2T | ₩104.5B | -₩503.4B | 2.0% | −18.0% | 153.3% |
| 2025 | ₩5.1T | ₩132.9B | ₩29.5B | 2.6% | 1.1% | 151.5% |
Consolidated basis (financial statements including subsidiaries) · Final figures from DART filings · Net income attributable to owners of the parent · Data as of 2026-09-04
Consolidated revenue in 2025 came to KRW 5,134.5bn, a slight decline from KRW 5,231.4bn in 2024, while operating profit rose 27% to KRW 132.9bn from KRW 104.5bn, lifting the operating margin from 2.0% to 2.6%.
More notably, net profit attributable to owners—which had widened from a loss of KRW 120.1bn in 2022 to KRW 315.9bn in 2023 and KRW 503.4bn in 2024—turned positive at KRW 29.5bn in 2025.
Quarterly results were volatile: despite a peak operating profit of KRW 86.0bn in Q4 2025 (the highest of the five quarters shown), net profit attributable to owners posted a loss of KRW 80.1bn that quarter, and operating profit then collapsed to just KRW 1.46bn in Q1 2026 before recovering to KRW 33.4bn in Q2 2026.
These sharp swings appear to reflect a combination of structurally weak TV advertising revenue, content amortization burdens, and non-operating items such as changes in subsidiary equity valuations.
Over the trailing four quarters (Q3 2025 through Q2 2026), combined revenue was KRW 5,216.4bn and operating profit KRW 138.5bn, yet net profit attributable to owners registered a modest loss of KRW 4.5bn, indicating that operating-level improvement has not yet fully translated to the bottom line.
Operating cash flow, a measure of cash-generating capacity, was KRW 1,166.4bn in 2025, down from KRW 1,402.6bn in 2024 but still solid relative to revenue.
The debt ratio rose somewhat from 137.8% in 2022 to 151.5% in 2025, and equity attributable to owners shrank from KRW 3,552.2bn in 2022 to KRW 2,789.4bn in 2025, reflecting the cumulative impact of multi-year losses on the capital base.
The domestic OTT and media industry is experiencing intensifying competition among global and local players including Netflix, Disney+, and Coupang Play, while traditional TV advertising revenue has been declining for four consecutive years.
The industry has seen a continuous rise in domestic OTT penetration relative to population, even as pay-TV (IPTV) and terrestrial advertising revenue structurally contracts.
Against this backdrop, the Tving-Wavve merger has been discussed for three years as an attempt to achieve economies of scale in the domestic OTT market; it received conditional approval from the Korea Fair Trade Commission but has been delayed due to the lack of consent from major shareholder KT.
However, after Tving posted its first standalone quarterly profit in Q2 2026, demonstrating viability on its own, some in the industry have begun questioning whether the merger still delivers the same benefits.
On the content production and distribution front, sustained overseas demand for K-content has led CJ ENM to strengthen sales in existing markets such as Japan, Southeast Asia, and North America while pursuing new partnerships in India, the Middle East, and South America.
Relative to peers, Studio Dragon holds the country's largest drama production capacity, and the music segment's Mnet Plus is attempting to monetize IP through a fan base of roughly 44 million.
The company projected that TV advertising in the second half of 2026 would improve sequentially by more than 30% from the first half, with sponsorship revenue expected to grow about 26% year-on-year in H2.
It noted that Q3 profitability could be slightly lower than Q2 due to seasonal advertising weakness and elevated content costs, while Q4 advertising performance for Tving is expected to improve on KBO postseason games and peak-season demand.
Fifth Season is expected to continue facing a TV series delivery gap in H2, with the company planning to focus on library distribution and film monetization in the meantime. On the content slate, theatrical releases of the films "Tazza: Belzebub's Sonata,
CJ ENM's shares appear to trade at a substantial discount to net asset value, a pattern consistent with years of accumulated net losses that have eroded the equity base.
While net profit attributable to owners turned positive in 2025, the trailing four-quarter window still shows a modest net loss, suggesting the market remains in a phase of confirming the durability and magnitude of the profit recovery.
The company currently does not pay a dividend, limiting the appeal from a yield perspective.
On the sell-side, Daishin Securities stated in an August 7, 2026 report, maintaining a Buy rating and a target price of KRW 56,000, that if Tving's profit turnaround is followed by normalization in TV advertising and Fifth Season, operating profit could approach the pre-merger combined level of KRW 250bn, potentially normalizing the company's valuation.
However, other brokerages around the same period lowered their target prices reflecting caution about the pace of earnings recovery, indicating a divided market view on the speed of the turnaround.
Compared with the prior multi-year downturn, the direction of operating margin improvement is evident, but whether this translates into stabilized net profit will need to be judged from subsequent quarterly results.
PER, EPS, PBR and BPS are all calculated in-house (the same method as Naver and Toss) · Dividend yield = cash dividend per share from DART filings (supplemented by KRX) ÷ current price · As of 2026-09-04
Tving posted Q2 2026 revenue of KRW 140.7bn (+41.4% YoY) and an operating profit of KRW 6.0bn, its first quarterly profit since its 2020 standalone launch. Advertising revenue also grew 52%, showing simultaneous growth in both subscription and advertising.
The KBO league and original content drove subscriber and traffic expansion, which could be interpreted as a sign of structural improvement beyond seasonal factors.
In Q3 2025, the film/drama segment posted revenue of KRW 372.9bn (+48.2% YoY) and an operating profit of KRW 6.8bn, turning around from an operating loss a year earlier.
This was driven by box-office success and expanded overseas premium content supply from Fifth Season, with new market partnerships also being pursued in India, the Middle East, and South America beyond Japan, Southeast Asia, and North America.
In 2025, net profit attributable to owners turned positive at KRW 29.5bn, breaking a three-year streak of widening losses. The operating margin also improved from 2.0% in 2024 to 2.6% in 2025.
Simultaneous signs of profitability improvement across multiple segments—media platform, film/drama, and commerce—can be viewed positively.
Operating profit plunged to just KRW 1.46bn in Q1 2026, a sharp swing from KRW 86.0bn the prior quarter. TV advertising revenue has been declining for four consecutive years, and digital advertising growth has repeatedly failed to fully offset this decline. Such volatility complicates earnings forecasting and could slow the market's confidence recovery.
The Tving-Wavve merger has stalled for three years since the late-2023 MOU, delayed by the lack of consent from Tving's second-largest shareholder, KT.
With Tving now profitable on its own, some voices are questioning whether the merger still makes sense, keeping uncertainty over both the outcome and timing of any deal alive.
The debt ratio rose from 137.8% in 2022 to 151.5% in 2025, while equity attributable to owners shrank from KRW 3,552.2bn to KRW 2,789.4bn over the same period. This reflects the cumulative impact of multi-year net losses on the capital base, and financial strain could re-intensify if the profit recovery slows.
Fifth Season's TV series delivery gap is expected to persist in H2, potentially delaying the recovery of the U.S. production subsidiary. Given the heavy fixed-cost structure from content amortization and production expenses, profitability can deteriorate sharply during revenue downturns.
The Tving-Wavve merger structure requires unanimous shareholder consent under the shareholder agreement, meaning opposition from second-largest shareholder KT alone can block or delay the deal.
In addition, if other shareholders such as SLL Joongang—reportedly considering a stake sale—change hands, a new round of consent negotiations could be required.
CJ ENM reportedly experienced a large-scale personal data breach recently, creating platform user-trust concerns and related regulatory compliance burdens. Changes in content distribution agreements—such as an SBS-Netflix partnership—could also affect content supply to affiliated platforms such as Wavve.
Q3 2026 earnings are expected to be disclosed (based on the company's past practice of reporting in early November). This will be the point to check the strength of TV advertising recovery, whether Tving's profitability persists, and whether Fifth Season's losses narrow.
This is the window to check whether Tving's advertising revenue improves on KBO postseason and year-end peak-season demand.
Progress in discussions with KT over the Tving-Wavve merger, as well as potential stake changes among other shareholders such as SLL Joongang, warrant continued monitoring.
This is a point to check the box-office performance impact of the films 'Tazza: Belzebub's Sonata,' 'Lost Paradise,' and 'International Market 2' on the film/drama segment's revenue.
CJ ENM's 2025 net profit attributable to owners turned positive after three years of losses, and Tving posted its first-ever quarterly operating profit in Q2 2026, demonstrating tangible progress in its digital transition.
However, the trailing four-quarter window still shows a modest net loss, and quarterly volatility remains significant, as seen in the sharp Q1 2026 operating profit decline driven by TV advertising weakness and content amortization burdens.
The Tving-Wavve merger has stalled for three years amid structural uncertainty tied to KT's consent, and Tving's standalone profitability has reignited debate over whether the merger still delivers sufficient benefit.
The debt ratio stands at a somewhat elevated 151.5%, reflecting the lingering impact of multi-year losses on the capital base.
Simultaneous signs of profitability improvement across film/drama, music, and commerce segments are encouraging, but whether this trend translates into stable net profit will require confirmation over the coming quarters. This report is for informational purposes only and does not constitute a buy or sell recommendation.
Report written 2026-09-05 · Data as of 2026-09-04
This content is AI analysis of market data and web search results, provided for information only. It is not a solicitation or recommendation to invest. Investment decisions and their consequences are the investor's own responsibility. Data may be delayed or contain errors.