Ha Kumloul

July 20, 2009 World Screen

 

April 2009
 
The Korean media landscape has dramatically altered since SBS launched as the country’s first privately owned terrestrial broadcaster. Its flagship CH6 network now faces an intensely competitive market, as well as an evolving cable landscape and one of the most heavily penetrated broadband markets in the world. SBS is active across a wealth of platforms, with cable brands, a T-DMB (terrestrial digital multimedia broadcasting) service and an international program-distribution arm. SBS’s president and CEO, Ha Kumloul, speaks to TV Asia Pacific about the group’s future.
 
TV ASIA PACIFIC: What are the biggest issues facing Korean broadcasters today?
HA: A new-media bill propelled by the Korean government will have a great impact on not only the TV market, but also the entire media market once it passes at the National Assembly. The bill is designed to deregulate the media market: it will allow large companies and newspapers to enter the TV market; clarify the roles and responsibilities of public broadcasters and private broadcasters; and introduce multiple media representatives to replace the Korea Broadcast Advertising Corporation (KOBACO), a sole public-media representative that sells [airtime for all the terrestrial broadcasters]. Once it passes, it will shake up the entire media market.
Another big issue is whether IPTV, which launched last year, will succeed. If IPTV succeeds, the absolute dominance of cable MSOs in the Korean multichannel market will lessen and the market will be [shared] by those two platforms. IPTV will also offer new converged services, bringing about big changes to the broadcasting environment.
 
TV ASIA PACIFIC: How have you positioned CH6? What do you want to offer viewers?
HA: SBS was founded in November 1990, and it is Korea’s first privately owned terrestrial broadcasting company. The appearance of SBS injected fresh air into the public-broadcasting-oriented Korean TV industry. SBS has rapidly grown to be one of the top three broadcasting companies as it successfully met the diverse needs of viewers with its then new format of infotainment programs, quality drama and entertainment content. From 1995 to 2002, SBS built a nationwide broadcast network by affiliating nine local private broadcasters to offer its content to the entire Korean population. SBS’s efforts to provide better quality content to more viewers made SBS one of the best broadcasters in Korea: in 2005 and 2006, SBS ranked first by annual average audience share.
SBS has done its best to satisfy viewers’ needs by offering diverse, fun and informative programs and fair and balanced news. In addition to quality linear programming, SBS provides various new services such as data broadcasting and interactive broadcasting to maximize viewers’ satisfaction.
 
TV ASIA PACIFIC: How are you working to maintain and increase your market share?
HA: The media environment is rapidly changing: the convergence of broadcasting and communication and the advent of new-media outlets are taking place everywhere. New-media [platforms] are eating up audience share and the advertising revenue of terrestrial broadcasters. However, they also bring about new business opportunities. They can be new pipelines for content owners like SBS. We try hard to produce quality content while developing various new business models [that will work] on new platforms. “One source, multi use” is our strategy to maintain and increase our market share. 
 
TV ASIA PACIFIC: What opportunities for growth are there with your cable channels?
HA: SBS Media Net runs four specialized channels in the fields of golf, sports, drama and ”in Korea. SBS cable channels make up for the decreasing audience share of the SBS terrestrial channel, while creating new revenue. Although an initial investment to produce broadcast content is huge, the reuse of that content does not require a huge cost. In this regard, cable channels are a good example of our one-source, multi-use [strategy].
We are now keeping a close eye on the developments of the cable market and studying the growth potential. SBS Media Net recently forged a partnership with E! Entertainment Television and launched the E! channel, replacing the existing sportainment channel. Whether E! will succeed or not will have influence on the launch of additional channels.
In the United States, [an SBS channel is] available via satellite and cable: Comcast, Time Warner Cable, DIRECTV and [Canada’s] TAN TV are our partners.
 
TV ASIA PACIFIC: How is your terrestrial DMB service performing?
HA: SBS Terrestrial DMB (T-DMB) started on December 1, 2005, with one TV channel, three radio channels and two data channels. [They] mainly retransmit SBS terrestrial TV and radio channels on a real-time basis, but DMB-only [original] programs are aired [during] commuting hours or late night. Traffic information is available on the data channel on a [pay-per-use] basis. For SBS, T-DMB is important in that it enables viewers to receive SBS over-the-air channels on the move. Viewers can have access to SBS broadcast service via T-DMB anywhere and any time.
The revenue from T-DMB has not met our expectations due to the lack of a [business] model and poor advertising sales. However, we plan to develop profit-generating interactive services by cooperating with telecommunication partners.
 
TV ASIA PACIFIC: What other methods have you used to expand the SBS brand into new technologies?
HA: SBS has made an effort to improve its brand image and expand its distribution by providing content via various emerging platforms. In 1995, SBS established SBSi to provide Internet-based broadcast-content services, including VOD. Last November, SBS started providing its content to IPTV platforms on a real-time basis. SBS plans to develop various IPTV service models by cooperating with service providers. 
 
TV ASIA PACIFIC: SBS dramas have sold well internationally. To what do you attribute that success?
HA: Good content has the power to overcome cultural barriers. Since its inception, SBS’s dramas have impressed many viewers with solid story lines, sophisticated and beautiful images and a mastery of directing. In 1995, SBS aired Sandglass, that recorded [a share of] 64.5 percent. It [is still] ranked the third [highest-rated program] to date. Lovers in Paris, Stairway to Heaven and many other SBS dramas were loved by viewers all around the world.
 
TV ASIA PACIFIC: What are your other plans for SBS’s international business?
HA: We’re trying hard to export good formats that have succeeded in the Korean market. Developing quality formats that can rock the global market is one of our priorities. Other than format exports, SBS plans to review the launch of channels with local partners in major overseas markets.      
 
TV ASIA PACIFIC: What have been your greatest achievements since becoming president?
HA: SBS recently aced out its competitors in news reporting. Different from drama or entertainment programs, news had been a weak spot. We are witnessing our efforts to strengthen news programs bearing fruit. Since January of this year, viewer ratings of SBS’s main news are on the rise. It recently ranked first five times, beating KBS’s news, whose ratings once doubled [those] of SBS.
 
TV ASIA PACIFIC: What are your priorities in the next 12 to 18 months?
HA: SBS’s short-term goal is to lead the broadcast market while quickly responding to the ever-changing media environment. Competition gets fiercer and fiercer as communications-service providers enter the broadcast market using new platforms such as IPTV, while the economic slowdown leads to a decrease in advertising, which is the major source of our revenue. SBS will do its best to create more diverse revenue streams.