Governing Grand National Party Rep. Ko Heung-kil, third from left, chairman of the National Assembly’s Culture, Sports, Tourism, Broadcasting and Communication Committee, receives a briefing ahead of the pilot broadcasting of IPTV at KT headquarters in Yeouido, Thursday. Rep. Na Kyung-won, second from left, GNP coordinator at the committee, and Rep. Jun Byung-hun, fifth from left, committee coordinator for the opposition Democratic Party, together with other committee members also participate in the tour. / Korea Times |
By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
Internet protocol television (IPTV), touted for years as the future of household entertainment, is starting with a whimper.
KT, the telecommunication giant that controls more than 90 percent of the country's fixed-line telephony customers and nearly 45 percent of broadband Internet subscribers, will begin retransmissions of terrestrial broadcasts on its IPTV trial services starting Monday.
However, KBS1 and EBS, the two non-profit public broadcasters, will be the only national channels providing their programs to the Web-based television services with KT having yet to reach a deal with KBS2, MBC and SBS to purchase their content.
The Internet provider and the major television networks remain apart in their negotiations, meaning the launch of commercial IPTV services, originally slated for this month, will be delayed at least to sometime next month.
The Korea Communications Commission (KCC), the country's broadcasting and telecommunications regulator, said it will consider intervening in negotiations should an agreement not be reached by the end of October.
KT can ill-afford to push IPTV without terrestrial channels on board. Most of the popular programs on its Mega TV broadband television services, which provides video-on-demand but not real-time broadcasting, are reruns of national television shows and being prevented from airing such content would certainly take the ``omph'' out of IPTV.
A breakthrough seemed possible at the end of September when KT looked near to finding an agreement with MBC over the pricing of content. Under the discussed deal, KT pays MBC an annual fee of five billion won (about $3.9 million) and will increase the amount when the number of IPTV subscribers reaches the one million mark.
However, once the bickering over money was cleared up, politics emerged as the next obstacle as the ongoing conflict between the Lee Myung-bak government and unionized journalists has put MBC on the fence again.
The National Union of Media Workers, the umbrella union of Korean journalists, is currently pushing for collective action against government plans to allow more conglomerates to own business companies and lift the cross-ownership ban of newspapers and television networks.
Unionists are vocal in opposing terrestrial channels from providing their content to IPTV, a sector the government expects to provide the first step towards deregulation of the media market.
MBC, concerned the changes might eventually lead to the privatization of the company, is reluctant to anger the union and has become shyer in its IPTV talks with KT.
The current law allows only companies with less than three trillion won in assets to own a news channel, over worries of mega-rich companies dictating public opinion. However, the KCC is now looking to rewrite the law and raise the cap to 10 trillion won.
KT's negotiation with the television networks is likely to provide a guideline for other smaller IPTV operators, SK Broadband and LG Dacom.
The trouble over content is certainly killing the buzz over the prospects of IPTV, one of most talked about technologies in recent years. Even if IPTV operators secure the content from national networks, analysts are mixed on whether the new service would deliver on its pre-launch hype.
To spread coverage, telecom carriers would have to spend a significant amount of money upgrading their networks and the content providers would have to get paid as well. And although consumers could be attracted by the video-on-demand services, the monthly price that could easily amount to 50,000 won per month ― 16,000 won for IPTV fees and monthly fees of around 30,000 for the premier broadband services ― could scare them away.
thkim@koreatimes.co.kr
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