By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
Mobile television is good for killing time on the morning commuter train, but not much more than that. Nonetheless, the country's terrestrial mobile television broadcasters are doing their best to keep viewers glued to their handsets even after reaching their cubicles.
The programming for land-based mobile television, dubbed terrestrial digital multimedia broadcasting (T-DMB) here, has been mostly bland and predictable, consisting of retransmitted conventional television, news and reruns of dated television shows.
However, starting this month, there will be a little more to watch on those tiny, three-inch phone screens.
Cable business channel MTN started its T-DMB channel Monday, named as UMTN and providing 24-hour coverage of the latest stories in the business and financial services sector. MTN said it plans to add interactive functions to its mobile television services, enabling data broadcasting, later in the year to differentiate with other business channels.
And UBS, which was converted to a business channel earlier this year, recently changed its name to QBS and is combining news with sports and entertainment content.
QBS said Monday that it will be the first T-DMB channel to provide mixed martial arts (MMA) broadcasts, announcing an agreement with Japan's K-1 to cover its ``World Grand Prix'' event later this month, which would undoubtedly have combat sports fans squinting their eyes watching brutal kicks.
``Between the morning to evening commuting hours, our programming will be focused on business news and stock information. After that, we will offer viewers a wide range of sports, game shows, movies, dramas and other entertainment content,'' said QBS spokesman.
``We hope K-1 to be a popular content for us. From 8 p.m. on weekdays, we will air highlights of the matches of popular K-1 stars such as Choi Hong-man, Bob Sapp, and Remi Bonjasky. On weekends, we will provide three hours recorded coverage of K-1 events from 5 p.m.''
The new T-DMB channels have existing channels scrambling to up their game. KBS, one of the three national networks that provides mobile television broadcasting, and U1 Media are some of the T-DMB operators that will start their trial services for ``DMB 2.0,'' an interactive version of mobile television, this month.
DMB 2.0 allows viewers a limited range of electronic commerce and other data-based services, and the broadcasters are in talks with mobile telephony operators such as SK Telecom to develop and test ``mobile home shopping'' and other interactive services. The interactive mobile television services are eyeing a commercial launch by the year's end.
``The technology has been getting better,'' said a U1 Media official.
``We believe that the debut of DMB 2.0 will be a watershed moment for the mobile television industry.
T-DMB channels are hoping that data services will open new opportunities for revenue, as the mobile television industry has been failing to convert its popularity into money.
According to numbers from the country's three mobile telephony operators ― SK Telecom, KT and LG Telecom ― the number of Korean mobile television users is well over 22 million, with mobile television features becoming conventional in mobile phones.
The country has nine T-DMB operators, who provide free services to customers and rely on advertisement-supported business models, and a satellite-based pay-T.V. channel operated by TU Media, an affiliate of SK Telecom.
Neither the ad-supported or fee-based business models have been lucrative for mobile television operators. The country's T-DMB operators combined for less than 10 billion won in advertising revenue last year, while TU Media, which has about 2 million subscribers, has yet to break even.