hanarotelecom Launches IPTV Service

July 25, 2006 - hanarotelecom has made inroads into the telecommunication-broadcasting convergence market, rolling out a commercial Triple Play Service (TPS), which they believe to be the first of its kind offered by a domestic fixed-line carrier.

hanarotelecom has announced the launch of "hanaTV", a commercial VOD-based TV-Portal service, which provides various contents including movies, dramas, and educational programs on TV through broadband Internet network and IP Set-Top Box.

With the launch of the “hanaTV” service, hanarotelecom believe that they are the first domestic fixed-line carrier to offer the TPS bundling of Internet, Telephone and TV, laying the foundation to transform itself into an integrated multi-media company offering a new type of telecommunication broadcasting convergence service.

The "hanaTV" service presents various differentiated features in that subscribers can watch a program of their choice at any time unlike the current TV broadcasting whose schedule is pre-set by broadcasters. It further provides various high-definition quality contents including movies, dramas, educational programs, and sports programs, presenting a high-definition quality digital screen with the full sound of 5.1 channel.

hanarotelecom has signed a deal with Sony Pictures Television International (SPTI), which distributes Sony Pictures Entertainment’s (SPE) feature films and television programming around the world. Major films titles include the feature films Spider-Man 2, Fun With Dick And Jane, and Kung Fu Hustle.

The company has explained that it had secured more than 22,000 contents(16,000 hours), signing agreements with more than 50 domestic/foreign content providers including the Walt Disney Television, CJ Entertainment, SBS, BBC Worldwide, YTN, EBS, Daum, and National Geographic. hanarotelecom has revealed that they are looking to collaborate with the likes of MBC, along with other major Hollywood movie producers such as 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros, in order to provide differentiated premium content services to customers.

hanarotelecom hopes the "hanaTV" service will attract around 250,000 subscribers, gaining revenue of approximately 5 Billion KRW by the end of 2006. One million subscribers are predicted with revenues of 70~80 Billion KRW by 2007 and 1.5 million subscribers with revenues of 200 billion KRW by 2008.

President & CEO of hanarotelecom Byung-Moo Park remarked that hanarotelecom would be able to expand its business scope by launching commercial "hanaTV" services and take the lead in the TPS market based on its fully-fledged bundling service combining broadband Internet, telephony, and TV-Portal. He also stated that the "hanaTV" service was expected to serve as a new growth engine for the company as the launch of the new service would contribute to expanding the subscriber base and creating additional profits by improving the satisfaction level of existing subscribers.

hanarotelecom has applied for patents for 5 technologies related to the "hanaTV" service; Advertising Scheduling, VoD Contents Channel-Up-and-Down, Contents Download & Play, VoD Contents Link, and P2P-based Contents Sharing.