This promotional image shows drama series streamed by over-the-top (OTT) media company Tving. Courtesy of Tving

Lee Jung-shik, a movie and drama fanatic, found it financially burdensome when e-commerce giant Coupang recently joined other streaming companies and hiked its fee to enjoy streaming services.

"The pace of hike in fees for each company was not huge, but when the fees were all added up, I certainly could not disregard them, especially as an ordinary salaried worker in the middle of a high cost of living," Lee said.

Lee is among many consumers in Korea who complain over increasing subscription fees for streaming platforms, including Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV, YouTube and Tving.

Concerning Coupang, its business expanded from online shopping, and its members can enjoy unlimited access to movies, TV shows and sports broadcasts streamed on Coupang Play as well as food delivery service on Coupang Eats.

The company raised its WOW membership fee by 3,000 won to 7,890 won ($5.71) as of April 13.

It marked the first hike in two years and four months after the fee went up from 2,990 won to 4,990 won in 2022.

Netflix announced last December it would scrap its cheapest ad-free basic membership with a 9,500 won price tag.

The cheapest remaining option is the standard membership which costs 13,500 won a month, marking a 42 percent price increase from the previous ad-free option.

A latecomer to Korea's streaming service market, Disney+ used to have only one kind of membership, with a monthly fee of 9,900 won or 99,000 won for an annual subscription.

With the success of its original drama series "Moving," it revised its subscription plan in November 2023.

Its services are now offered in two options — standard membership which keeps the original price tag of 9,900 won monthly and 99,000 won yearly, and premium membership in which users pay 13,900 won monthly, or 139,000 won annually.

The memberships differ in video and audio quality, and the number of concurrent streams.

Operated under the wing of entertainment giant CJ Group, Tving hiked the annual subscription fee for its basic plan to 114,000 won, up 20 percent from the previous price of 94,800 won, on May 1.

The hike followed a 20 percent increase in monthly subscription fees last October.

The hikes in subscription fees can be more burdensome for those who subscribe to more than one platform.

Moreover, those platform operators are increasingly competing to win exclusive broadcasting rights for popular sports. The latest case includes Tving's acquisition of broadcasting rights for Korea Baseball Organization League games for three years from 2024.