Korea Telecom

KT resolves broadcaster issues, launches linear IPTV

Dan O'Shea — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 09:27:05 -0500

Korea Telecom reportedly launched linear IPTV programming this week after resolving an impasse with national broadcasters over carriage terms, according to an IPTV News report based on a Telecoms Korea article. The MegaTV Live service carries content from broadcasters KBS, MBC and SBS, and offers a total of 33 channels, 85,000 video on-demand titles, and interactive services such as Internet banking and online shopping.

KT reported later in the week that its existing VoD IPTV service, MegaTV, had added 102,245 subscribers in the third quarter to reach 808,101.

For more:
- IPTV News has this post

KT IPTV lacks broadcasters

Dan O'Shea — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 09:21:42 -0400

Korea Telecom is rolling out an IPTV trial next week in South Korea and is planning to launch commercial service next month. Both announcements should be additional feathers in the cap of one of the world's most aggressive and assertive broadband carriers, but the incumbent telco is lacking key agreements with Korean broadcasters to support the service.

As a result, there only two non-profit national channels represented in the service, while KT continues to negotiate with the other broadcasters. The impasse, in part, contributed to the commercial service launch being delayed from this month to next month. The Korea Communications Commission (KCC) may intervene if those negotiations don't result in agreements by the end of October.

KT already offers a successful video-on-demand service called MegaTV, but its IPTV offering would be its first service to include fresh content from national broadcasters.

For more:
- see this story at The Korea Times

Korea Telecom collects 700,000 IPTV customers

Dan O'Shea — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 19:56:31 -0400

Korea Telecom has been facing stiff broadband competition, but the telco still managed to reach 700,000 subscribers for its "MegaTV" IPTV service by the end of the second quarter of this year. It has been the telco's ambition to reach 1.5 million subscribers by the end of this year. More than 130,000 subscribers came on board during the quarter. Still, that progress did not save KT from a 30 percent decline in net income to about $158.9 million.

For more:
- check out this coverage at IPTV News

Related articles:
KT reportedly has been facing increasing competitive and economic pressure. KT report
KT and Samsung have jointly promoted the telco's IPTV offering. KT report