By Cho Jin-seo
Staff Reporter
The Korea Communications Commission (KCC) fixed its guideline for new TV broadcasting channels to be delivered via broadband Internet, paving the way for private firms to start this service around this fall.
The regulatory body's executive committee passed the final long-pending bill on Internet-Protocol TV (IPTV) on Friday after heated debate among its five members. After the bill is approved at related government agencies in July, the KCC will start issuing broadcasting licenses to broadcasters from late August, it said.
IPTV is a new type of TV service, rapidly emerging as a threat to traditional TV services based on cable, satellite and radio wave networks. It is already widely watched in many countries such as France and Hong Kong. South Korea too has IPT firms such as KT, Hanarotelecom and LG Dacom, but they have been blocked from launching real-time broadcasting channels for years due to the absence of a legal base, and have only depended on video-on-demand services, which are less popular.
The three-year delay of the IPTV law was because of conflicting interests of various interest parties such as IPTV service firms, traditional TV channels and program production firms.
``It was a really hard delivery, and we finally reached an agreement,'' said Choi See-joong, the KCC chairman after hosting the three-hour meeting.
The KCC's IPTV guideline is taking liberal approaches on most of controversial issues. First, it will enforce big network firms such as KT and Hanarotelecom to open their high-speed Internet network to smaller firms without such infrastructure.
The bill will also open more business opportunities in the media industry to non-media firms. Currently, the broadcasting law of South Korea prohibits firms with more than 3 trillion won ($3 billion) of assets from owning a TV news channel, because of public worries that conglomerates such as Hyundai and LG may distort public opinion if they can posses TV channels. The new bill lifted this ceiling to 10 trillion won, and eventually it should be abolished someday, the KCC members agreed.
indizio@koreatimes.co.kr