By Kim Tae-gyu Staff Reporter A total of 46 locally developed technologies on Internet protocol TV (IPTV) were selected as international standards. This is likely to help Korean firms preempt the lucrative Web-based TV markets. The state-run Radio Research Laboratory announced Monday that the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) accepted 46 IPTV-associated proposals of Korea at its fifth meeting late last month. As a result, the number of the country's overall IPTV-related standards became 199, including ones approved at earlier four ITU focus group meetings. Affiliated with the United Nations, ITU is the leading agency in charge of establishing world standards for information and telecom technologies. ``We proposed 52 standards and 46 of them were acknowledged by the ITU IPTV focus group and this increased our standards up to 199,'' said Kang Sung-chul, a director at the radio research lab. ``This means almost a fourth of 700-plus IPTV standards are ours. Our companies will benefit much from the standards down the road when IPTV becomes widespread,'' Kang said. China is the only country that competes with Korea in the rivalry to secure IPTV standards as the world's most populous nation also gained about 200 standards. ``Our standards are superior not only in quantity but also in quality because many high-profile domestic companies teamed up with us over the past several years,'' Kang said. Such iconic high-tech corporations as Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, KT and Hanaro Telecom joined hands with the Radio Research Laboratory. However, the hitch is that the country has yet to commercially launch IPTV due to the turf war between government agencies in telecom and broadcasting. Because IPTV falls on a gray area between the two businesses, authorities in both telecom and broadcasting claim they should take charge of the Internet-enabled TV services. Telecom firms look to embark on IPTV as soon as possible, but it remains to be seen when the turf war will cease. IPTV is packet-based real-time broadcasting on the Web, which experts predict will bring more possibilities for customers than conventional video services. Otherwise dubbed broadband TV, IPTV has no channel limitations as long as the network doesn't suffer overloads, and it also enjoys global coverage. The broadband-powered TV services can be watched on various terminals ranging from a PC monitor to a TV screen with the help of a set-top box. IPTV comes with the digital era, when all data like voice, text and broadcasting travel through the Internet pipeline after being digitized as numerous ones and zeros strung together. voc200@koreatimes.co.kr