Posdata to launch IPTV in California

POSDATA is an Internet and network service subidiary. This company is from the largest steel producer in Korea called POSCO. Recently, it has been diversifying its portfolio to diverse network equipment(such as Mobile WiMax). They have the experience of doing content business such as animation and traffic information in Korea. Also, they have experience in building the IPTV system of Hanarotelecom. With these experiences and local marketing activities, their primary goal is to dominate the market before others get in on the business.
POSDATA is aiming at approxiamately 1 million ethnic Koreans living in the west coast of U.S, California. This year september, they will start Internet-Protocol TV services (IPTV) by setting up joint venture with Celrun, a set-top box maker, and Acanettv, a digital TV platform provider. POSDATA will settle their Internet TV station based on Los Angeles. The initial capital of the joint ventrue is to be $ 104 million. The name and their brand of the new company will be announced soon and the firms did not breakdown their investment but POSDATA will be the leader of consortium. This is another hard challenge for a Korean IT firms to offer services business on the U.S because previous attempts of other firms had mostly failed. The giant conglormerate, SK telecom, is an example of many struggles of signing up subscribers for its Helio mobile phone services in the American soil for several years. So POSDATA made their business strategy by targeting the huge Korean people first to minimize the risk. Also, they are waiting for other local TV companies in California to party their consortium to share both fincancial burden and opportuinties. California has the largest korean ethincs residents in the world. According to Korean embassy, there are about 340,000 legal and illegal Koreans living in Los Angeles. There are already several Korean-language cabel channels in serivce but none of them has video-on-demand service of popular Korean TV programs. However, POSDATA said, Korean dramas and entertainment shows will be the main items of the new IPTV serivce. After that, education, shopping, karaoke and games will be shown. IPTV refers to paid IV services that use home broadband Internet lines to receive IV signals. It is becoming popular in many nations such as Western Europe and Hong Kong since it offers video-on-demand movies and other advanced functions.
In my personal opinion, I think POSDATA will succeed in their strategy in focusing on Korean residents in California. Since Koreans are strong in keeping their ethincity, they will be glad to have a new serivce on Korean TV shows with more conveinency. While experiencing Korean-American residents, I am sure that they would find the right taste of pure American needs. I think niche on Korean residents and gradual expansion of the TV market will bring success to POSDATA.

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2008/04/123_22704.html

20620042 - Entry #6