By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter

Mobile television has been getting a growing audience, with digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB) reception becoming a conventional feature in mobile phones.

However, commuters on subways and KTX bullet trains may no longer be able to squint at their tiny screens as a dispute is growing between the DMB operators and the Korea Rail Network Authority (KR) over the price of broadcasting equipment usage.

KR has recently demanded the six land-based DMB broadcasters and TU Media, an SK Telecom unit that operates a satellite-based DMB network, to finish payment of their arrears for installing and using mobile television transmitters and repeaters on rail networks by the end of the month.

The six land-based DMB operators were billed 2.4 billion won (about $2 million) in total for their equipment usage on the Gwacheon, Bundang and Ilsan subway lines from May 2006 to December this year. TU Media was charged 360 million won for equipment usage on KTX trains for the same period.

However, the mobile television broadcasters are refusing to pay up, claiming that KR has charged them excessive fees. Land-based DMB services are provided free, while TU Media charges monthly for its satellite-based television services.

The mobile television operators claimed that they agreed with KR to set the cost for equipment usage based on fees charged per distance, as they do with Seoul Metro, which operates the Seoul subways. However, KR recently changed its stance and recalculated the fees based on standards presented in the national property law, the broadcasters said.

``The subway lines operated by KR total 63 kilometers, and under our prior agreement we should be paying about 170 million won per year, not 700 million won,'' said an official from the DMB special committee, an industry lobby of land-based DMB broadcasters.

KR has threatened that it will consider ``legal measures'' should the mobile television operators fail to complete their payment by Oct. 30. However, the rail operator has said it could lower its fees should the DMB operators be able to gain an authoritative interpretation from the government that they should pay less than the standards stated in the national property law.

Currently, land-based DMB broadcasters are paying 350 million per year for equipment usage on the subway lines and commuter trains in Seoul and Incheon. Even that is too much, they say, as many of the land-based DMB broadcasters have yet to find successful business models and are struggling to stay afloat.

thkim@koreatimes.co.kr