Konkuk University Medical Center and its ... - Korea IT Times

Electronics Special
further in the future.
IPTV problems?
After all, the strength of IPTV is that high-capacity content can
be transmitted on the both sides, which means better quality of internet
service is feasible. However, even though it has differentiated
elements compared to previous VOD, Korea's IPTV faced
some difficulties for the stable entry process. Because IPTV technology
requires a robust infrastructure, very costly investment
had to be made and set-top boxes are still needed in some rural areas.
Another negative factor was a delay in legalization ! These issues
caused the implementation of IPTV up in Korea to be slower
than antisipated. It took approximately three years for lawmakers
to settle on regulations regarding IPTV after KT had announced
the introduction of IPTV in 2004. Another contributing hinderence
was that there are two regulatory agencies, KCC and
Ministry of Information and Communication, whos veiws were
in sharp conflict with one another and neither agreed with the positions
of players in the industry, exaserbating the delay. As a result,
the service was actually started in November 2008.
If those probels weren't enough, due to inequity of regulation,
fair competition was not acheived. Since laws relating to IPTV's
are more restrictive than those in the general Broadcast Law,
IPTV has faced some challenges which include accounting separation,
share limit by the domains, providing essential equipment
and various post-regulation rules that prohibit the direct channels.
Another barrier which IPTV is facing now is the limited
amount of available content and the seeminly limitless demand.
Public Broadcasting Operators have implemented a substantial
cost structure for retransmission of their content over IPTV,
which has resulted in a significant financial burden to IPTV operators.
Denial of providing higher channel rating content by MPPs
(Multiple Program Provider) to the SO's (System Operator),
seems to be the biggest obstacle to content promotion.
Unfortunately, as a result, there has been a slowdown phenomenon
in growth in IPTV subscribers. There is no doubt that the
'program access rules' should make a shift in policy to give satisfactory
results without delay.
Ripple Effects of IPTV
How does IPTV influence us? " First of all, IPTV will change
our life style and expand the options" said Mr. Suh. He continued
by saying, "Let me put it this way, if the previous TV is Family
TV, IPTV is your own TV. It provides 100% of digital broadcasting
service. Not only can someone just watch TV, experiencing
TV is possible with interactive services." To take a lead in this
change, KT plays a role as a tracker to support 'complete national
digital conversion by the end of 2012', which is one of the main
government policies. Also, it is expected that IPTV operators will
help to actively develop content for the industry. Suh explained
that since the transmission infrastructure has grown, it will motivate
the creation of content providers, so the content production
and related services will be energized by enhanced interactivity
content. Through network investment, network upgrading and
related service support will be serve to facilitate growth, too. In
addition, operators' continuous investment for QoS and security
will advance the sophistication of the national IP network, highspeed
internet and internet telephony by expanding the internet
coverage and bandwidth. KT's IPTV business is quite worthy of a
second look. KT leads the current IPTV business in Korea by
supporting about 1.25 million subscribers in August 16th 2010.
They broadcast a total of 149 channels including 30 of audio
channel. At the first half of 2010, KT provided 86,000 VoD, and
holds a total of 85 flavors of the interactive services with additional
20 this year. Especially, the Open IPTV platform KT supports
is something you 'can't not miss'. Basically, everyone can broadcast
and deliver quality contents via the facilities and infrastructure
KT holds. It is an unquestionably effective way of activating
content. "The most imperative thing for the development of
Korea's IPTV is to collect the subscribers as many as possible."
Mr. Suh said. He also stressed by saying, "A TV should be the TV
which provides social network instead of showing only some TV
program. And the platform needs to advance to sell and buy the
content." Before long, the time will come, not only will we watch
videos broadcast from TV, also information searches and video
phone will be possible. Last but not least, Suh ended the interview
with the comment: "Like the advent of color TV, the emergence
of IPTV can not be stopped. This is a cultural trend which is not
going to disappear."
KimYearim/ yearim@koreaittimes.com
Full Series Schedule
For those interested in past or future issues of this series, here is
the full schedule of the series:
July 2009 : An overview
August 2009 : The electronics industry is born
September 2009 : Electronics industry gains momentum
October 2009 : Color TV production opens a new vista
November 2009 : Radios, cassettes
and electronic watches change lifestyle
December 2009 : The personal computer arrives
January 2010 : TDX1 introduced into the local network
February 2010 : TFT LCD allows determination of film thickness
March 2010 : CDMA comes into commercial use
April 2010 : U-technologies (part 1)
June 2010 : U-technologies (part 2)
July/August 2010 : WiMAX opens
September 2010 : IT 839 Strategy
October 2010 : Era of IPTV
November 2010 : Futuristic Technology
www.koreaittimes.com 83