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Methodology

Sources & Verification

Where our data comes from, how we verify it, and how it stays fresh.

Primary source

Our monthly lineup data originates from industry programming records — the schedule documents Korean broadcasters and content partners use to plan and confirm seasonal programming.

We do not name our specific commercial source on the public site for confidentiality. What this guarantees you: dates, episode counts, and cast information here reflect what the industry itself uses internally — not what fan wikis have crowd-sourced.

English title verification

For each drama, we confirm the official English title against at least two independent public sources from:

  • MyDramaList (display title — URL slugs often lag)
  • AsianWiki
  • HanCinema
  • Wikipedia
  • Official OTT platform pages (Netflix Tudum, Disney+, Viki, Tving, Coupang Play, Wavve)
  • Broadcaster English official pages (KBS World, SBS, MBC Global)
  • IMDb
  • Industry news (Soompi, Dramabeans, ZAPZEE, Allkpop)

Wikipedia alone is treated as insufficient — wiki entries occasionally diverge from OTT and broadcaster official branding. When sources disagree, we prefer OTT and broadcaster official over wiki and fan databases.

Cast, directors, writers

Korean names are transliterated using the Revised Romanization of Korean (KMRR) system, except where:

  • The person uses an official different English spelling (e.g., "IU", "Hyeri")
  • A writer uses an established English pen name (e.g., Im Sung-han → "Phoebe")

Verification is cross-checked against MDL person pages, official agency announcements, and industry news.

Auto-calculated finale dates

Most English K-drama sites either omit finale dates or report broadcaster announcements verbatim. We calculate the expected finale from:

weeks = ceil(episodes ÷ weekly broadcast frequency) finale = premiere + ((weeks − 1) × 7 + (weekly − 1)) days

Example: 21st Century Princess — 12 episodes ÷ 2 per week = 6 weeks → premiere (2026-04-10) + 36 days = 2026-05-16.

Confidence is rated high when both premiere date and episode count are firmly stated, medium when episode count is preliminary, and unknown when either is missing. Special programming, preemptions, or season splits can shift actual finales ±1–3 weeks.

Update cycle

  1. Industry programming records are received monthly (around the last week of each month).
  2. Data is processed into structured per-drama records with English title, cast, crew, and synopsis verified.
  3. The current month is diffed against the previous month — additions, removals, and field-level changes generate the monthly changelog.
  4. The site rebuilds and deploys within one business day of the source data update.

Trailer sources

Trailer embeds are matched through the YouTube Data API and only use videos from official broadcaster or OTT channels. We do not download, re-host, edit, or mirror video files.

Matching requires a title/date check plus official channel verification. When available, descriptions are cross-checked against cast, director, writer, and production-company names to reduce false positives.

Public pages use a lightweight facade: the official YouTube thumbnail is shown first, and the youtube-nocookie.com player loads only after the user chooses to play the trailer.

What we don't do

  • We do not republish Korean-language synopses or copyrighted production materials.
  • We do not link to unofficial or pirated streaming sources.
  • We do not embed fan edits, reaction videos, recap clips, or unofficial uploads.
  • We do not crowd-source scheduling data from users — every field is editorially verified.
  • We do not claim affiliation with any broadcaster, production company, or streaming platform.