Government Eases Cable TV Regulatory Burdens... Realizing Changes in Permit Requirements

'Abolition of "Guidelines for Handling Facility Changes in Wired Broadcasting"
Analog Era Regulations Persist in the Digital Broadcasting Age
Proactive Administration Effort to "Identify Areas for Regulatory Improvement"'

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] The Ministry of Science and ICT announced on the 1st that it will abolish the 'Guidelines for Handling Cable Broadcasting Facility Changes' starting from the 2nd to reduce excessive regulatory burdens on cable TV broadcasters.

The guidelines included 'cases of establishing or changing terrestrial broadcast retransmission channels' as subjects of 'changes affecting compliance with technical standards' under Article 15, Paragraph 2 of the Enforcement Decree of the Broadcasting Act, applicable to cable broadcasters. In the analog service of the cable TV industry, changing terrestrial broadcast retransmission channels altered the physical frequency, affecting technical standards. It was necessary to change the modulator to match the changed frequency band.

However, with the complete termination of analog services in February this year and the advent of the digital broadcasting era, the need for change was raised. In digital broadcasting services, even if a company establishes or changes terrestrial broadcast retransmission channels, the physical frequency does not change, so it does not affect technical standards. Additionally, with the retransmission of out-of-area terrestrial broadcasts and the introduction of technological neutrality, cable TV broadcasters are transitioning to broadcasting services based on Internet Protocol (IP) networks, raising concerns that the guidelines could be excessively applied.

The Ministry of Science and ICT will abolish the guidelines and clearly interpret the scope of change approval as 'related to terrestrial broadcast retransmission within the same broadcast area that causes changes in the physical frequency (RF) band of the main transmission device (limited to QAM and 8VSB transmission methods).' This means limiting it to certain cases affecting technical standards even in digital broadcasting transmission methods such as QAM and 8VSB.

The government judged that since channel composition and operation are regulated under the terms and conditions of paid broadcasters, it is undesirable to further expand the scope of change approval. Following the principle of proactive administration that prohibits imposing new obligations beyond the purpose of the law, it decided to abolish the guidelines.

The Ministry of Science and ICT stated, "We will continue proactive administration to actively discover and improve areas where regulatory improvements are possible without hindering user protection and fair competition in the interpretation and application of laws."

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