KOREA: "hanaTV proves IPTV growth potential"

The rapid growth of Hanarotelecom's IPTV sector shows the potential of IPTV to grow big in South Korea, says CEO

The Korea Herald
Thursday, August 9, 2007

By Kim Yoon-mi

Hanarotelecom's internet-based video-on-demand TV service hanaTV, which was launched in July last year, has shown how fast an IPTV service can grow in terms of attracting customers, Hanarotelecom CEO Park Byung-moo said yesterday.

"While it took three years for France Telecom to acquire 500,000 IPTV subscribers and two years for PCCW (the largest telco in Hong Kong), we acquired 500,000 hanaTV subscribers in about one year, and it can be a barometer of hanaTV's success," Park said at a press conference, celebrating the first anniversary of hanaTV's launch.

The revenues from HanaTV service, the first IPTV service in Korea, largely contributed to Hanarotelecom's second-quarter earnings this year, helping the company turn a profit for the first time in two years, the company said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday.

The CEO said that hanaTV has strength in providing abundant content.

"HanaTV has secured 98 percent of local movies and 60 percent of Hollywood films. Within the third quarter, we are planning to secure 100 percent of Hollywood movies," Park said.

Hanarotelecom has invested 5 billion won ($5,400) in cultural content funds, he added.

The company has already signed content sharing contracts with local movie distributor CJ Entertainment, Show Box, and Lotte Entertainment, as well as with major Hollywood film distributors such as Paramount.

By the end of the year, it will sign contracts with all seven major Hollywood movie distributors including Sony Pictures, Universal Studios, 20th Century Fox and MGM.

The nation's second-largest internet service provider after KT plans to achieve about 190 billion won in revenue by 2008, if the "real IPTV service" requiring real-time broadcast is available in the Korean market, hopefully next year, Park said.

Real-time broadcasts are not available yet because bills on regulations of communications and broadcast sectors are still pending in the National Assembly.

Technically, hanaTV and MegaTV by KT are pre-IPTV services.

"We are now preparing a trial service of real IPTV in joint partnership with several set-top makers and plan to launch the trial service from Nov. 1," he said.

Regarding the company's largest shareholder AIG Newbridge Capital's sale of its stake, Park said Goldman Sachs, which is in charge of managing the sale of the stake, told the company that half of the "over 10" companies interested in the first bid will again be inspecting Hanarotelecom.

Park said "he is not aware which companies are interested because Goldman Sachs is in charge" but said the inspection will be finished in at least two months.

Date Posted: 8/9/2007