South Korea's pay-TV industry has begun organising messages to deliver to the Broadcast Media and Telecommunications Commission ahead of its normalisation, including calls to address regulatory imbalance. Related pay-TV associations are detailing proposals focused on industry issues such as fairness with global OTT services and easing channel regulation.

The commission, launched in October last year, began work with only 2 members appointed by the president among its 7 commissioners, including Chair Kim Jong-cheol (김종철) and standing commissioner Ryu Shin-hwan (류신환). Five seats recommended by the National Assembly, 2 from the ruling party and 3 from the opposition, remain vacant.

The pay-TV industry, however, sees the commission's normalisation as not far off. It is based on the ruling Democratic Party confirming recommendations for Ko Min-su (고민수), a professor at Gangneung-Wonju National University, as a full-time commissioner, and Yoon Sung-ok (윤성옥), a professor at Kyonggi University, as a non-standing commissioner, and judging that a vote in a plenary session of the National Assembly is not far away. Under the act establishing the commission, a plenary meeting can open if at least 4 of the 7 incumbent commissioners attend.

The industry is focusing on crafting messages for the commission ahead of full operations. Both the cable TV and IPTV industries say addressing regulatory imbalance is the top task. They argue that, compared with global OTT platforms, pay-TV faces heavier constraints such as on channel lineups, programme content and advertising. They complain that unequal regulation accelerates worsening profitability when the number of TV subscribers has already stagnated.

For example, the cable TV industry plans to ask the commission to set reasonable standards for content fees between system operators and programme providers. Cable TV operators say their revenue from subscriber fees and home shopping carriage fees continues to fall, while content procurement costs rise, threatening survival. The Korea Cable TV Association has issued new guidelines for calculating content fees, but they have yet to take root as an industry standard.

A cable TV industry official said, "The commission says it will leave it to the industry's autonomy, but programme providers are not accepting the content fee calculation standard made by the Korea Cable TV Association." The official added, "The commission should set clear standards."

The IPTV industry's position is similar. It says fairness should be ensured under the principle of 'same service, same regulation' with OTT services. In particular, easing regulation on bundled product pricing is a task it wants resolved. Many IPTV subscribers sign up as part of packages combined with internet products. But the Broadcasting Act requires approval of terms for bundled product pricing, making it difficult for the IPTV industry to design pricing plans to compete with OTT services.

It also argues that IPTV-only pricing terms, while formally under a reporting system, are in practice close to an approval system because of wording that says a filing must be accepted after confirming it meets requirements.

Abolishing the re-licensing and re-approval system that operators had to undergo every 7 years is also urgent. A bill to abolish that system has already been introduced by Democratic Party lawmaker Han Min-soo (한민수) through amendments to the Broadcasting Act and the IPTV Act. The IPTV industry hopes the bill will pass the National Assembly as soon as possible.

The cable TV association plans to hold a press briefing as early as mid-next month to share its proposals for the National Assembly and the commission. It is expected to be a venue to publicise the industry's requests to the government and the commission and to introduce the status of each operator. The IPTV association also plans to publicise industry issues to the public and the government through seminars and participation in academic conferences.

The commission's normalisation is expected to happen as early as the end of this month. The agenda to recommend commissioners was initially set to be put to a National Assembly plenary session on Feb. 12, but it was scrapped after the opposition People Power Party boycotted the session. Some say the agenda could return to a plenary session through a ruling-opposition agreement at the end of this month.