Korea starts ASO
South Korea plans to end analogue television in some regions from next year as part of the switch to digital TV, The Chosun Ilbo newspaper reports.
The Korea Communications Commission (KCC) said that it would select regions to receive only digital signals from next year as part of a pilot project ahead of the full implementation of digital broadcasting in 2012.
Source: ABU website
Item added: 18th May 2009



ASO confirmed for 2012
The National Assembly has confirmed that analogue switch off in Korea will take place by the 31st December 2012.
The approved bill was based on the analogue transition plan proposed by the Ministry of Information and Communication and the Korean Broadcasting Commission in 2006.
Source: advanced-television.com
Item added: 4th March 2008


Korean TV fully digital by 2012
Web based advanced-television.com reports that digital broadcasting services will fully replace analogue in Korea by 2012. Minister of Information and Communication Roh Jun-hyong and Korean Broadcasting Commission Chairman Cho Chang-hyun have put together a bill that would require full digitalisation. The bill requires broadcasters to halt their analogue TV signals by December 31, 2012. The law would also require all new TV-related home appliances to incorporate digital tuners, or equipment for digital reception.
Korea was one of the few countries to select the US designed ATSC standard 8-VSB for terrestrial digital transmission.
Main source: advanced-television.com
Item added: 1st May 2007

Analogue TV switch-off delay expected due to poor take-up
After several years indecision on whether the US ATSC system would be good enough to provide for the needs of Korea rather than the field proven DVB-T system, the ATSC system was re-affirmed as the only allowable DTT system.
Now the Korean government are considering pulling back on the previous announced date for analogue switch-off of 2010 due to poor take up of DTT services.
The Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) originally projected that DTT penetration would reach 95% by 2010 and planned to stop analogue TV transmissions at that time. These figures have now been scaled down to an estimated penetration of 59% by 2010 due to worse than expected TV sales.
Source: The Korean Times
Item added: 23rd February 2006

 

DVB-H trial planned for 2005/2006
During 2004, four major Korean organizations agreed to start a DVB-H project.

The participants include:
MIC (Ministry of Information & Communication)
KBC (Korean Broadcasting Committee)
KBS (Korean Broadcasting System)
The United Broadcasting Union.

A task force will be formed during 2005 to progress the DVB-H test trial which is planned to take place during Q2 of 2006.
Source: KOBETA 
Added: 29th March 2005

Current numbers for SkyLife 
OCAP service continue to be very popular in Korea. Skylife  now have 1.7 million subscribers with 1.05 million of them having MHP enabled STB'sis number is expected to rise to 1.5 Million by the end of 2005.
CJ CableNet launched an OCAP based service on 1st February 2005. Take-up figures are not yet available.

Background

South Korea adopted the U.S. standard, 8-VSB digital terrestrial modulation system in 1997. In 2001 commercial services where launched in Seoul and extended to the surrounding Kyonggi Province in 2002.

During the course of 2003, the Korean broadcasting community under the auspices of the Korean Broadcasting Commission reviewed the adoption of ATSC based on the perceived poor performance of the technology.

Following extensive trials and discussions at various levels of industry, the ATSC decision was retained.
DVB's technical performance and flexibility were weighed against a not insignificant existing deployment of ATSC receivers and the potential cost to the industry of any change in technical standard at that late stage.

Since the re-affirmation of ATSC as the digital terrestrial television standard in Korea, the roll-out of ATSC HDTV services has continued.

In an effort target mobile and portable receivers, the Korean broadcasters have been forced to look at other technologies such as DVB-T-based, DVB-H and DAB-based, DMB.
Updated: 26th April 2005

DVB endeavour to ensure that the information on these pages, which comes from many sources, is correct but we are unable to guarantee its accuracy. If you have any additions or corrections please send them to dvb@dvb.org

Last page update: 18th May 2009, Barry Tew