The logo of Korean movie channel tvN Movies (CJ E&M)

CJ E&M is launching the first overseas television channel to exclusively air Korean movies, the media and entertainment company announced Wednesday.

The company plans to kick off the channel, tvN Movies, first in Singapore in January and expand to Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia this year.

CJ E&M will air some 200 films -- including over 20 recent releases -- encompassing all genres.

The Korean media giant has signed a contract with StarHub, Singapore’s largest telecom service provider and private broadcaster, to deliver tvN Movies to over 540,000 households. The channel’s films will also be available to Singaporeans online via video-on-demand on StarHub Go, the telecom company’s online streaming service.

CJ E&M is currently in contact with cable channels and Internet Protocol TV companies in Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia and Hong Kong.

According to a Korean Film Council report in 2015, Southeast Asian markets accounted for over 78.2 percent of Korean film exports.

“Our goal is to make CJ E&M rank among the top 10 culture content companies in the world by 2020,” said the company’s Chief Executive Kim Sung-su.

CJ E&M has been laying the groundwork for its expansion in Asia in recent years.

The company established its Hong Kong branch in 2015. The Hong Kong-based tvN Asia broadcasts Hallyu content to nine Southeast Asian countries. Last year, it established Korea-Thailand joint ventures CJ Major Entertainment and True CJ Creations for movie production and content creation, respectively. In December last year, it acquired Vietnamese content company Blue Group and launched CJ Blue Corp.

By Rumy Doo (doo@heraldcorp.com)