Until recently, IPTV has been stuck in a limbo without any notable developments or directions in South Korea. Now, however, KT, a major broadband company, found a way out of this limbo by cooperating with Naver, a large portal site.

On July 12, KT signed a contract with NHN, the largest internet company in South Korea, to cooperatively launching 'Mega TV'. Mega TV, which was introduced in Korea before KT began developing IPTV, is expected to gain prominence through Naver as a result of this agreement.

This is the first time that the cooperation between an broadband company and an internet company has been established for the purpose of preparing for IPTV services. Through this cooperation, NHN will be able to provide a wide range of services through a TV platform. These services include: TV search service, which makes real-time internet search possible while watching TV; full-duplex data channel service using Naver, Hangame, and Junior Naver; and various other digital data services provided by websites.

As NHN and KT agreed to jointly develop a full-scale IPTV service that is currently being provided via 'Mega TV', complementary sets of other TV-based services, including search options, are expected to be developed.

According to Chae Hwi-young, the president of NHN, "by cooperating with KT, which has built the broadest and the most reliable communications network infrastructure, we are confident that our IPTV service will be able to provide more valuable services to our customers." "The goal of NHN's 'convergence service'", he continued, "is to provide convenient services that users want from various platforms. From now on, we will consider this as our top priority when building other cooperative models in the future."

Meanwhile, NHN and KT will begin to provide information search and data channel services through 'Mega TV' until the end of the year. Thereafter, they will expand the scope of these services as Mega TV gradually evolves into IPTV.

When government renders insufficient support, business takes direct actions
As a result of the cooperation between KT and Naver for IPTV service, the IPTV market, which may have otherwise remained in stagnation, is slowly recovering its vitality.

As the policy-making process for IPTV has been delayed due to conflicts between the Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) and the Korean Broadcasting Commission (now heightened by the politics associated with the 2008 Presidential Election), the private sector, which has participated in model projects, is now taking initiatives to dynamize the market.

In particular, cooperation between popular portal sites and Broadband company’s is expected to increase the early influx of users by bringing to the fore two-way service, one of IPTV’s strong points.

Daum Communication, the second largest portal site in Korea, which designated 'video' as its 'killer service', has already begun preparing for IPTV. Last year, it participated in model projects for IPTV and presented various application services.

Daum has formed an independent consortium for IPTV, not subject to Broadband companies, in order to advance their model projects. According to its spokesperson, "the only difficulty is that we don’t have Broadband company's networks and that the related legislations are inadequate. If the network opening is permitted and the neutrality of networks is guaranteed, the market will become much more dynamic."

Private companies initiated IPTV projects amidst inconsistent government policies and interest conflicts between communications and broadcasting entities. As two-way services provided by portal sites such as search, game, shopping, and map information are grafted onto IPTV, its potential is growing wider and faster then ever before.