Chairman Lee Kyung-jae of the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) said, “The KCC will foster outstanding global channels of Korea that promote Korea and Hallyu (Korean-Wave) and continue its marketing efforts for them targeting governments and media groups around the world, so that the channels may be broadcast in the living rooms of global citizens not only in the Unites States but also in South America, Europe and Asia.”

The following are excerpts of an interview between NewsWorld and KCC Chairman Lee in which he spoke of his commission’s responsibilities and future tasks. 

Question:  What is the founding purpose of the Korea Communications Commission (KCC)? Please introduce the organization briefly.

Answer:  Taking office in February last year, President Park Geun-Hye presented the ‘creative economy’ as a new paradigm for economic growth, and the first thing she did after winning the election was establishing the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MSIP) dedicated to the creative economy as part of a wider government reshuffle. 

My understanding of the creative economy is to use people’s imagination and creativity to develop technology in a country short of natural resources, and make it an engine for growth generating added value and new jobs.

 Broadcasting and telecommunications, and ICT in general are the key field that can realize the creative economy, and it is the industry where every second matters to win competition.

In early 2000s, Korea developed the IPTV technology at a similar time to advanced countries. Unlike them who began commercial service right way, however, Korea had the painful experience of waiting four long years before commercializing the technology because of the controversy surrounding it. 

Against this backdrop, the government set up the MSIP, a ministry taking full responsibility for the creative economy, rendering it the authority for the industrial and technological aspect of broadcasting and telecommunications. 

In the meantime, freedom of the press and the task to ensure impartiality in broadcasting have been put under the remit of the KCC. 

It was the right decision in that it tries to preserve the core values of the democratic society. 

And at the same time, it meets the needs of the times that Korea’s key driving engine ICT industry should be further fostered, responding to the convergence of broadcasting and telecommunications in a proactive manner. 

Terrestrial broadcasters producing 80 percent of the broadcast content are under the remit of the KCC and therefore, providing supports to make the content and advertising market more vibrant is another important pillar of the KCC’s work. Besides, the KCC takes responsibility for regulating mobile phone subsidies and protecting users such as from personal data exploitation for unjust purposes and cyber violence. 

Q:  What is the focused task at the KCC for 2014?

A: In its first year, the new government made preliminary preparations to achieve the goal of materializing the creative economy, and as the President stressed, broadcasting that has driven the Korean-Wave for the last ten years is one of the key actors in the creative economy. 

The license fee for KBS, however, has stayed unchanged at 2,500 won for 33 years amid the shifting focus toward pay TV and the Internet, and the shrinking advertising market under the influence of economic recession.

Terrestrial broadcasters’ financial situation keeps worsening with their audience share halved to 20 percent over the last decade, while they have led the Korean-Wave through dramas and K-pop, among others.

As a result, they have been caught in a vicious circle of diminishing content production capability and reduced advertising. 

In response, the KCC designated this year as the first year for ‘creative broadcasting and globalization’ to make a great leap in the spirit of the year of horse 2014.

First, the KCC is going to devote itself to strengthening broadcasters’ funding and production capability through raising the license fee and cutting back on advertising for KBS, and relaxing regulations applicable to broadcasters. 

 In addition, it will restart the Korean-Wave that is somewhat slow now by providing active supports for the Korean-produced content and channels to go global. 

It will also foster the next-generation broadcasting such as UHD TV, a future growth engine. 

Q: You have emphasized the globaliza-tion of Korean channels. What is your strategy to achieve that?

A: Korea’s flagship English channel Arirang TV has been made available in hotels across the globe. 

Starting February 20, 2014, however, Arirang TV will be broadcast to 11 million households as part of the basic package of DirecTV, America’s largest and global best satellite TV retaining 36 million subscribers in North and South America. 

While NHK of Japan and CCTV of China also operate international broadcasting in Asia, Arirang TV is the only broadcaster whose content is carried as a basic channel targeting mainstream audience of the people, not just a small number of viewers. 

The KCC will foster outstanding global channels of Korea that promote Korea and Korean-Wave and continue its marketing efforts for them targeting governments and media groups around the world, so that the channels may be broadcast in the living rooms of global citizens not only in the Unites States but also in South America, Europe and Asia. 

Q:  For spreading Korea’s broadcast content, you have recently been to China, a foothold for the Korean-Wave. Rega-rding content exchange, China has recently moved to limit Korean-made content. What did you achieve in China? 

A:  As China emerges as the significant foothold for spreading the Korean-Wave, the Chinese government is strengthening the regulation governing foreign-produced content including that from Korea.

Still, broadcasters are making a good fight by finding a new way of exporting the format of the programs such as ‘Dad, where are you going?,’ ‘I'm a singer,’ and ‘K-pop Star,’ shifting away from exporting only dramas. 

The meeting to report the KCC’s tasks to the President was joined by the responsible director YH Kim of MBC for discussions. MBC is leading the format exporting.

The President also mentioned that exporting ideas and thoughts is one of the good examples of the creative economy that the government aims to pursue.

 In the January meetings with the Chinese government, I explained that exchanging general programs such as dramas, documentaries and entertainment shows, not news programs that may become sensitive depending on the situation of the two countries, could be the foundation that strengthens the two nations’ competitiveness in content. 

I proposed we open up each other’s market in the principle of reciprocity and pursue joint production, with which the Chinese counterparts sympathized. 

For increased cooperation in content exchange between the two nations, memorandums of understanding were concluded between the two governments and between broadcasters (EBS-CCTV), and I will work hard to reap tangible outcome from them. 

Q: You met with the Federal Communi-cations Commission and major media groups in the United States last year and expressed your commitment to the introduction of UHD broadcasting. What is your plan for that?

A:  UHD (ultra high definition) presents four to sixteen times better picture quality than HD, and it is the yardstick that can measure the international competitiveness of home appliance manufacturers as well as the broadcasting industry. 

Last July when I visited the US government and global media companies like Disney, I felt the US did not have much interest in UHD yet and thought it was premature to introduce UHD. 

Early this year at the biggest home appliance show CES, however, an active movement was witnessed and the global first experiment of UHD broadcasting succeeded at Sinclair of the US, which shows a rapid change in the market. 

In Japan, the government, NHK and home appliance companies are devoting all their energy by joining forces with each other to regain the global number one position in the industry, which they have lost to South Korea.

China has also drawn attention with many cheap-priced UHD TVs presented at the CES this year. 

The KCC has formed a joint consultative body together with the MSIP to find the way to build an ecosystem for the broadcast content and equipment, and is going to direct its energy to strengthening the capability of the terrestrial broadcasters producing more than 80 percent of the broadcast content in Korea.