KT Skylife's artificial intelligence (AI) sports broadcasting solution, Pochak, is gaining traction as it secures multiple deployment cases. It is expanding its reach into professional sports and increasing its market influence.

KT Skylife said on Tuesday that the KT Wiz second team and the professional basketball team KT Sonicboom adopted Pochak in July last year. In March this year, football pitches at Giheung Respia and Suji Sports Park in Yongin installed the Pochak system. The Lotte Giants second team and professional football club K League 2 Paju Frontier FC will use Pochak to broadcast their games from this season.

Pochak is a solution in which a camera applying AI automatically tracks and films players' movements and the ball's trajectory. It automates the entire process through editing and transmission, reducing the burden of labour costs. It also does not require ancillary facilities such as an outside broadcasting van. The company says it can cut costs by up to 90 percent compared with existing broadcasting methods.

KT Skylife previously singled out AI broadcasting as a new growth engine amid a slump in the pay-TV industry. In July 2024, it invested about 6.8 billion won in Hogak. Hogak is a company that provides unmanned sports broadcasting services using an AI camera system from Israel's Pixellot. Its subsidiary HCN also invested 3.0 billion won in Hogak, as it put in a cost approaching 10.0 billion won for its AI broadcasting solution business. The market has assessed the move as a kind of bold bet at a time when the company's business conditions were not favourable.

An industry official said, "It can be seen as an investment to create a new revenue source as the pay-TV business is stagnant," and added, "They likely also considered its linkage to their core broadcasting business in that it applies AI to media."

KT Skylife has stepped up market development by expanding deployments into professional sports after rebranding the service name to Pochak in July last year. Compared with last year, when many pilot adoptions came through business agreements, this year has seen more installation contracts that generate actual revenue. All sports teams that newly adopted Pochak this year, including Paju Frontier FC and the Lotte Giants second team, signed paid contracts.

Within the company, there is also a mood of taking it as a sign of new business expansion. A KT Skylife official said, "While early on the focus was on securing references, recently more contracts are leading to actual sales."

For KT Skylife, as references build up, a structure has been put in place that could speed up the spread of the solution. Based on its deployment experience to date, it is expected to be able to set up smoother broadcasting systems in areas such as local government sports events and grassroots sports, which were its existing targets. KT Skylife previously signed a business agreement with the Korea Sport & Olympic Committee to broadcast some events of the National Sports for All Festival and the National Youth Sports Games through Pochak, and supported the Korea Journalists Association football tournament with Pochak.

Going forward, the possibility of expanding beyond simple game broadcasting into data-based services is also being discussed. There is room to develop add-on businesses such as game video analysis services, providing player performance data and producing highlight content. It is also an area where synergy with KT Group, which has telecommunications and media infrastructure, is expected.

Some have pointed to excessive investment in the early stage of the business, but the company says results are now emerging. A KT Skylife official said, "We have continued to expand the Pochak business since last year's rebranding," and added, "We will steadily increase references and expand into various sports and regions."