This morning I found that JC Allen visited Seoul and settled down for interviews from The INQUIRER.

He interviewed Sean Lee & Kang-Min Ahn who are respectively , CEO & CFO of DirectMedia. He interviewed them to discuss their business of mobile content distribution and their accelerating transition to become the biggest mobile content producer in South Korea. To read the full interview, click here.

I think it will give a good overview of how Korean mobile contents company operates in the Industry.

TU Media has been able to acquire the simultaneous re-transmission rights from MBC according to an interesting article I just read. This represents a big step for TU Media but it comes two and a half years too late.

As TU Media started operations in mid 2005 it tried to acquire simultaneous re-transmission rights from broadcasters. This means that S-DMB viewers would be able to watch popular dramas and shows simultaneously with fixed TV. These contents are considered the most popular on both fixed and mobile TV. However, previously have broadcasters been reluctant to share these contents because they wanted to use it for their own T-DMB service. This is why S-DMB had to focus on other contents like sports and news. But the lack of “killer” contents from fixed TV hindered S-DMB development (as shown in the graphic above). Until today it had been able to acquire approximately 1.26 million subscribers. But according to TU Media they need approximately 2.5 million subscribers to be profitable. As a result, as reported two weeks ago, SK Telecom is thinking about limiting its involvement in TU Media.

But also T-DMB is struggling to build a profitable business. Despite more than seven million T-DMB devices in Korea the advertising revenues are marginal. Which partially is the result of very restrictive legislation on advertising but also broadcasters have failed to develop an attractive mobile advertising value proposition to make this channel more attractive for advertisers.

Experts are blaming policy for allowing two different mobile TV standards and businesses. Their competition was one of the main obstacles that mobile TV could not develop its full potential. So is mobile TV doomed in Korea? I do not think so, because consumers have embraced this new medium and it is very likely that broadcasters will take mobile TV more serious and endeavor to make mobile TV advertising more attractive for broadcasters. Until 2012 more than 20 million T-DMB devices are expected, so mobile TV has a future in Korea. In these days I am finalizing the mobile TV report I have been working on recently, so if you are interested in a more in-depth analysis of the Korean mobile TV market let me know. I am eager to share it with everybody who might be interested.

Several Korean newspapers (such as The Electronic Times) reported today about how the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has made T-DMB one out of four global standards for mobile TV, the others being DVB-H, MediaFLO and 1seg.

All standards have their pros and cons of course. T-DMB is most extensively used and tested, with South Korea being the center of action and the standard is strongly supported by the South Korean government who wants to make it a worldwide standard. However, there are some business model issues that my coming Mobile TV report will point out. DVB-H is the best guess to become a European standard and it is backed by the European Commission, Nokia and others. It is still in an early stage but is currently in a testing phase in 24 countries while Italy and Finland provides a real service. The American MediaFLO is not dependent on previous technologies which can be both beneficiary and a disadvantage but the proprietary issue gives a drawback in some sense. The monopolistic structure around Qualcomm may also be a drawback for the standard when trying to enter new global markets. Japan’s 1seg does not seem to have a global approach and it also has big problems when viewed at speeds above 20 km/h (compared to T-DMB that can even be viewed on the 300 km/h KTX trains)

So while the European countries are to make up their mind to chose between the EC’s favorite DVB-H, the well established and tested T-DMB or the outsider MediaFLO, the European Broadcasting Union made a wise statement when saying that “Technology alone will not decide the future of mobile TV”. South Korea is the front runner and even if Europe decides to go with DVB-H, many lessons can be learned when designing business models, contents and so on. However, it is crucial that the business get started and that mobile TV reach its potential and prime time globally.