Last Year, Domestic Broadcasting Market Reached 17.7 Trillion Won... IPTV Surpasses Terrestrial Broadcasting Revenue

[Asia Economy Reporter Seulgina Jo] Last year, the size of South Korea's broadcasting market reached 17.7 trillion KRW in sales. IPTV surpassed terrestrial broadcasting for the first time, driving overall market growth.

The Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Communications Commission announced the results of the "2020 Broadcasting Industry Survey," which covers the status of the domestic broadcasting industry in 2019, on the 17th. This is a nationally approved statistical survey conducted annually since 2000 targeting all broadcasters with sales of over 100 million KRW.

At the end of last year, the domestic broadcasting market size was 17.7 trillion KRW in sales, a 2.1% increase compared to the previous year, but the growth rate has been continuously slowing since 2010.

First, the total sales of terrestrial broadcasters amounted to about 3.5 trillion KRW, a decrease of 279.7 billion KRW (-7.4%) compared to the previous year. Sales by broadcaster were KBS 1.3456 trillion KRW (-5.2%), MBC (including affiliates) 874.5 billion KRW (-3.9%), and SBS 707.6 billion KRW (-16.5%).

The total sales of pay broadcasters reached about 6.4 trillion KRW, an increase of 347.1 billion KRW (+5.7%) compared to the previous year. Sales by operator type were SO 2.0227 trillion KRW (3.2%), IPTV 3.8566 trillion KRW (+12.2%), and satellite broadcasting 548.5 billion KRW (-1.2%). In particular, IPTV sales surpassed terrestrial broadcasting sales for the first time, continuing high growth.

Excluding home shopping, the sales of broadcasting channel usage providers (PP) increased by 34.7 billion KRW (+1.0%) from the previous year to about 3.4 trillion KRW. General programming PP sales were 822.8 billion KRW (+2.6%), news PP 160.6 billion KRW (-0.9%), and general PP 2.3966 trillion KRW (+0.6%). Home shopping PP (including data home shopping PP) sales amounted to about 3.7 trillion KRW, an increase of 217 billion KRW (+6.2%) compared to the previous year.

Additionally, the number of pay broadcasting subscribers increased by 1.04 million units (+3.2%) to 33.81 million units. Since the launch of IPTV in 2008, IPTV subscribers exceeded half (50.6%) of the total pay broadcasting subscribers for the first time.

By operator type, the number of subscribers was SO 13.48 million units (-2.4%, 39.9% of total), RO 46,000 units (-16.0%, 0.1% of total), satellite broadcasting 3.17 million units (-2.9%, 9.4% of total), and IPTV 17.13 million units (+9.4%, 50.6% of total).

Meanwhile, broadcasting program export revenue was about 37 million USD, an increase of 4.035 million USD (+12.3%) compared to the previous year. Broadcasting program import revenue was about 9.7 million USD (-0.5%), and broadcasting program production and purchase costs recorded about 3.2 trillion KRW (+6.5%).

Looking at programming status, terrestrial and general programming PPs allocated the highest proportion to culture and entertainment genres, while SO (regional channels) allocated the highest proportion to culture. The live broadcast ratio was 73.6% for terrestrial, 61.7% for general programming PPs, and 18.9% for SO (regional channels), all slightly increased compared to the previous year. The number of broadcasting industry workers increased by 265 from the previous year to about 38,000. Terrestrial broadcasting had 14,458 workers (+66, 38.5% of total), pay broadcasting 5,853 workers (+32, 15.6% of total), and PP 17,181 workers (+119, 45.8% of total).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.