By Kim Yoo-chul
Staff Reporter
Samsung Electronics and KT, South Korea's dominant fixed-line operator, have set up a partnership to propel IPTV sales amid increasing demand for such services in one of the world's most Internet savvy countries.
Under the partnership, Samsung will offer 42-inch plasma display panels (PDP) and 40-inch liquid crystal display (LCD) ``Bordeaux'' TVs at specially discounted prices to new subscribers who applied for the new Mega TV service, Samsung said Monday.
``The joint marketing will give consumers a chance to experience the latest service with higher quality viewing,'' officials from Samsung and KT said.
Mega TV offers programming from all terrestrial TV operators _ KBS, MBC and SBS. Many genres of programming are available, including movies, sports, culture, animation, drama and even educational programming.
According to KT, the Mega TV video-on-demand (VOD) service, which was launched in July, has been showing a steady healthy pace, having secured 148,00 subscribers as of the end of September.
``We are positive the new service will attract one million subscribers by 2008,'' a KT official said.
The number of its high-speed Internet subscribers rose 3 percent to 6.52 million in the third quarter from 6.33 million a year earlier.