South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT will expand the K-FAST Alliance programme, which brings together domestic free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) operators to support their global expansion.

The ministry and the Korea Association for ICT Promotion (KAIT) on Wednesday held a meeting of the Global K-FAST Alliance's general and coordination working group at Dreamplus Gangnam in Seoul's Gangnam district. They announced results from a project supporting the spread of AI-dubbing-focused K-FAST and discussed this year's plan.

As the number of companies participating in the alliance has grown to 82 from 22 at its launch in April last year, the ministry from this year reorganised its operating structure into 5 working groups: content and channels, technology, advertising and platforms, global, and general and coordination.

At the first general and coordination working group meeting this year, issues for each working group were shared. FAST platform, AI technology and content companies discussed finding joint projects and ways to cooperate across areas.

Results were also announced from the AI dubbing support project 추진 last year. Participating companies developed an "AI dubbing agent" that links AI-based audio source separation, translation and synthesis technology to automatically reproduce emotional expression and non-verbal elements. Based on that, they localized about 1,200 K-content titles, or about 1,400 hours, into English, Spanish and Portuguese and built 20 "AI-dubbing-focused K-FAST channels".

The channels have been carried since December last year to 22 countries including the United States, Canada and Mexico through global FAST platforms Samsung TV Plus and LG Channels. As of the end of April this year, about 5 months after the service started, cumulative viewers totalled about 100 million.

Jeong Sang-won (정상원), CEO of ESTsoft, said, "We will accumulate the data and production know-how needed to enhance AI dubbing quality and secure technological competitiveness in the global market." Shin Hyun-jin (신현진), CEO of Hudson AI, said, "Through the K-Alliance, we will accelerate the overseas expansion of K-content with AI-based dubbing technology."

The ministry selected 3 consortiums through a call for proposals for this year's support programme: Hudson AI (channel name: CJ ENM K-Dance), ESTsoft (Genie K-Shot and Trend On) and UnAI (K-Vibe+). It will newly build 4 AI-dubbing-based "flagship K-channels". The budget is 230 million won per channel.

The 4 new channels diversify genres, including vertical drama, K-beauty and K-dance. They plan to expand the latest content, including K-FAST originals and commerce-linked programmes.

Nam Seok (남석), director general for telecommunications policy at the ministry, said, "I hope the alliance will become a stepping stone for domestic platform, AI and content companies and the government to cooperate and lead the global FAST market."