South Korea’s Internet Protocol television (IPTV) revenue is set to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.4% for the period 2019-2024, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

An analysis of GlobalData’s Asia-Pacific Fixed Communications and Pay-TV Forecast Packs reveal that South Korea’s IPTV service revenue will reach US$ 3.8bn. The number of IPTV subscriptions in South Korea is set to increase from 14.93 million in 2018 to 19.26 million in 2024.

IPTV, a part of Pay-TV services, is expected to cover nearly 86% of the households in South Korea, as compared to nearly 30% of the households in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region in 2024.

Akash Jatwala, Research Analyst of Telecoms Market Data & Intelligence at GlobalData, says: “With the availability of abundant content, subscribers are shifting from cable TV to IPTV. Some of the reasons for the churn in cable TV include super-fast broadband with wider penetration and attractive tariff plans with bundled services including video-on-demand (VoD) and over-the-top (OTT) content.

“Favorable government policies to increase the fiber footprint to cover the entire nation with a speed of up to 1 GBPS and healthy business environment with private participation in the early deployment of fiber optic are some of the reasons for the growth of fiber broadband, and IPTV in South Korea.”

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With increase in competition, mobile network operators (MNOs) are introducing attractive features along with bundled IPTV services. LG U+ has integrated Netflix to its IPTV set-top box with attractive tariff plans, thereby reducing the churn to below 1%. KT Corporation has introduced IPTV with virtual reality (VR), where viewers can experience VR-based Full HD VoD (FHD VoD) using the TV’s remote only, and plans to launch artificial intelligence-based content recommendation system. SK Telecom launched its own OTT content service ‘Wavve’ to provide original regional content to its customers.

Jatwala concludes: “Amid increasing broadband footprint and speed, customers are switching from Cable TV to IPTV, and to enhance the value propositions of their customers, MNOs are partnering with OTT Content Players to stay in the competition. By adding OTT content to their bundles, MNOs can boost customer loyalty and enhance data usage, ultimately increasing their overall Average Revenue per User (ARPU).”