Transition Team: "Regulatory Innovation to Leap as a Media Power... Will Foster Native OTT"

by Kim Hye Min

by Lee Kimin

Published 26 Apr.2022 12:03(KST)

Establishment of Media Innovation Committee After New Government Inauguration

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporters Kim Hyemin and Lee Gimin] The Presidential Transition Committee announced on the 25th that to leap forward as a global media powerhouse, it will establish a control tower called the ‘Media Innovation Committee (tentative name)’ to oversee media strategies after the new government’s inauguration, reorganize existing laws and systems, and foster indigenous internet video services (OTT).

Park Seongjung, the science, technology, and education subcommittee spokesperson of the Transition Committee, held a briefing at the Transition Committee press conference hall in Tongui-dong, Seoul, that morning and announced the national agenda for the media sector containing these details.

The media sector national agenda proposed by the Transition Committee includes three main points: ▲ Innovation of outdated and excessive regulations across the media sector and realization of a global media powerhouse through innovative growth of digital media and content industries such as OTT ▲ Establishment of fairness and publicness in media and restoration of public trust ▲ Implementation of a digital and media world that walks together with the people.

The Transition Committee plans to first disclose the task of ‘realizing a global media powerhouse’ and then sequentially announce the remaining agendas. Chairman Park said, “After more than 20 years, the media now faces a completely new environment,” adding, “If you watch the movie ‘Minari’ in a theater, it is a movie; on TV, it is a broadcast; and on a mobile phone, it becomes OTT. A prompt response to changes in the media environment is necessary.” He continued, “The new government will prepare laws and systems that can encompass not only existing media but also new media,” emphasizing, “The newly established legislation will establish a foundation for fair competition and protection of viewers and users so that new and old media can coexist, focusing on systematic and comprehensive support and promotion.”

To effectively discuss this, the ‘Media Innovation Committee’ will also be created. The Media Innovation Committee plans to broadly discuss future visions and strategies responding to changes in the media environment, plans for reorganizing the media regulatory system, ways to create a healthy media ecosystem, and other necessary matters for media promotion and realization of social values.

They also emphasized boldly removing regulations that hinder the growth of the media market. Representative Park said, “One of the most urgent tasks in the media sector is to innovate outdated regulations that tightly and excessively bind the broadcasting market, which are unnecessary and not suited to reality,” explaining, “For example, the licensing and approval periods for terrestrial and comprehensive programming channels are 3 to 5 years, making it difficult to focus on strengthening competitiveness and service innovation independently, and there have been criticisms that the licensing and approval conditions are excessively numerous, overly restricting the autonomy of broadcasting businesses.”

He added, “We will boldly remove all media industry regulations, including licensing and approval, ownership and cross-ownership restrictions, advertising scheduling, and review regulations, to strengthen the autonomy and competitiveness of the media industry, activate investment, and realize economies of scale.”

Regarding the promotion of OTT businesses, Representative Park stated, “Through amendments to the Telecommunications Business Act and others, we will introduce tax credits for content production costs and a self-rating system, and soon accurately define the legal status of OTT operators in a comprehensive media law,” adding, “We will expedite the emergence of K-OTT through an all-out promotion policy jointly prepared by related ministries.” He also said, “We will nurture OTT talent and create new jobs in various fields such as professional editors, videographers, and metaverse creators,” adding, “We will establish a K-OTT global advancement base that functions like the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) and create a large-scale public-private joint K-OTT fund.”