Korea: IPTV officially launched
Rose Major ©RapidTVNews | 14-12-2008
There will be three fully-fledged IPTV services in South Korea as of January 1, after SK Broadband (formerly Hanaro Telecom) and LG Dacom announced they would be joining KT’s Mega TV service in offering linear channels from January 1.{modulebot:74}
At a ceremony held by the Korea Digital Media Industry Association in the capital Seoul last Friday, Mega TV’s service was officially launched. But the platform has been broadcasting 33 channels since November and is now looking at an 80-channel premium tier.
SK Broadband and LG Dacom, meanwhile, have concluded deals with the public broadcaster KBS, as well as major networks SBS and MBC. But reports are that there is still no agreement on how much the platform operators will pay for the terrestrial networks’ content, a situation which also persists at KT’s Mega TV.
While negotiations over fees to the channels continue, the operators have already set their subscription rates, with Mega TV starting at Won16,000 (US$11.70) a month, SK Broadband at Won14,500 and LG Dacom at Won14,000.
© Rapid TV News 2008
