South Korea deregulates pay-TV
January 3, 2017
By Colin Mann
The South Korean government is planning to deregulate the domestic pay-TV industry to facilitate mergers and acquisitions among cable TV, satellite broadcasting and IPTV service providers with the intention of enhancing their competitiveness in the global market.
The Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning said that it would apply the same regulation to the entire domestic pay-TV industry unifying the operating licences of cable TV, satellite broadcasting and IPTV service providers.
The 33 per cent shareholding limit applied to satellite broadcasting companies taking part in cable TV companies is to be repealed, enabling the merger of satellite broadcasting service providers with an IPTV service provider, with cable TV service providers also now allowed to acquire such operators.