Mobile TV Flourishes in South Korea, But Fails to Generate Profit

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Mobile TV Flourishes in South Korea, But Fails to Generate Profit

6:50 am on August 13, 2007 | Category: Business, Telecom Services, Television, Wireless, Regulation, Editorials

As Europe and North America try and sort out competing technology standards for mobile television, the digitally advanced nation of South Korea is already watching everything from news to cartoons, and sports to comedy on their mobile handsets.

Approximately 7 million South Koreans, or one in seven of the country’s residents, routinely make use of mobile TV services on cell phones, personal media players, handheld computers, vehicle navigation systems, or other portable devices.

“Pretty soon, phones doubling as TVs will be as ubiquitous as camera phones now,” predicts Song Sang Hoon, the director in charge of mobile TV at South Korea’s Ministry of Information & Communication, which has pushed carriers to offer the service.

The government’s aggressive role in promoting and regulating mobile TV, however, may have caused the service to evolve too quickly for a solid business model to emerge, preventing carriers from generating a profit with the technology.

Details of South Korea’s mobile TV situation were explored by BusinessWeek on August 3.

This just goes to show how the slow development of new technologies, without intervention from governments and regulators, can be much better for the industry as a whole.

Sure, it can be a pain waiting for a dominant technology to emerge naturally and for companies to get their act together, but it beats creating a government-powered “house-of-cards” industry, which is incapable of supporting itself in the free market.