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Mobile TV in Korea - Two Years On

Mobile TV launched in Korea in 2005, accompanied by a great deal of optimism from the Korean government and the service providers. The expectation was that early success would drive the Global standards in mobile TV in a direction that would be to the advantage of Korea's industry. The reality has so far fallen somewhat short of expectations. While it has not been difficult to attract users to the free to air T-DMB service, it has been more difficult to grow the base of users willing to pay a monthly subscription (to the satellite delivered S-DMB system). A major revenue stream from advertising has also proven to be more difficult to develop than originally thought. Plans by the operators to achieve breakeven in 2008 and 2009 now look unlikely to be achieved.

Nevertheless, by the end of 2007, there are expected to be around 10 million mobile TV users in Korea and the base is continuing to show healthy growth. So should the experience in South Korea be considered a success or a failure? This report examines the development of mobile TV in Korea over its first two commercial years and identifies the lessons that any company considering a mobile TV offer needs to understand. Key actionable recommendations that all MNOs should consider conclude the report.

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Table of Contents


1
Overview
1
2
Introduction
2
3
Background to Mobile TV in Korea
3
3.1
Overview of Mobile Broadcasting
3
3.2
Problems solved and remaining issues
4
3.2.1
Geographical Coverage
4
3.2.2
'In-city' Coverage
4
3.2.3
Finding New Business Models
4
3.2.4
Developing Mobile TV Content
5
3.2.5
Retransmission Issue
5
3.3
Evolution of Usage
5
4
Development of the User Base
8
4.1
Background
8
4.2
Reasons for Current Situation
9
4.3
Devices Available
11
5
DMB Business Models
13
5.1
Introduction
13
5.2
T-DMB
13
5.3
S-DMB
14
6
Mobile TV Content
16
6.1
Channel Availability
16
6.2
Data Services
17
6.2.1
TTI Service (Traffic and Travel Information)
17
6.2.2
Program-Linked Data Services
17
6.2.3
Independent Data Services
18
6.3
Interactive Content
18
7
Operational Results
19
7.1
T-DMB
19
7.2
S-DMB
19
7.3
The Need for New Business Models
19
7.3.1
S-DMB
19
7.3.2
T-DMB
20
8
Conclusions & Recommendations
21
8.1
Remaining Problems
21
8.2
Future Development Perspectives
21
8.2.1
DMB Service to Becomes Mainstream
21
8.2.2
Device Innovation and Standardisation
22
8.2.3
The Role of Data and Interactive Services
22
8.2.4
Future Plans of TU Media
23
8.3
Recommendations to MNOs
23