`Improper Rules for Broadcasting Should Be Abolished
By Cho Jin-seo
Staff Reporter
Impractical regulatory barriers are costing South Korea big in the telecom and broadcasting services market, a visiting CEO of a global TV technology company said.
``Your regulations actually do not encourage governance. They separate each sector, and that's not what the consumer wants,'' said Graham Kill, CEO of Irdeto, a major contents security systems provider, during his visit to Seoul last Friday.
``An interesting thing is that as a country that prices itself on being the early adapter of technology and being the showcase to the world of new things, I think we are missing a trick here _ you have incredibly high-bandwidth Internet widely deployed, and you got all the pieces of the puzzle. But the regulations are stopping you from putting them altogether.''
One of the most conspicuous examples of the failed regulatory process is the TU Media, the world's first Satellite Mobile TV service, Kill said. Irdeto has been providing conditional access systems, which limits the TV content to subscribed clients, to TU Media. But TU has been financially struggling from low subscriptions and lackluster ad sales, and the company has blamed the government for blocking it from airing popular terrestrial channels through mobile phones.
Kill suggested the Korean government should ``clear the air,'' which is to tear down the barriers between different broadcasting service categories, which, for example, blocks Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) from airing terrestrial channels, so companies can focus on improving customer services, not on the technology itself.
``I think increasingly the consumer won't care (about technology). What you want to do is to watch your favorite program. You don't care whether the program comes through the cable under ground, or signal through the sky. You just sit in front of television with your remote control, and care only that you get the program you want to see.''
Irdeto is a major provider of content security systems for analogue, digital, Internet and mobile pay TV services. Recognizing the potential of the Asian market, the company last year split its headquarters into two, one in the Netherlands and one in Beijing, where Kill and his family currently live.
The company has worked closely with Korean set-top box manufacturing firms such as Samsung, LG, Humax, as well as mobile TV operator TU Media.
But Korea's advanced IT and manufacturing industry has been a challenge to it on the other hand. In 2006, it sued three Korean set-top box manufacturers for making and exporting equipment that disarmed Irdeto's content security systems to enable viewers in the Middle East and Europe to watch paid TV channels for free. The three were given suspended sentences and fines at the Seoul Central District Court.