South Korea’s broadcasting industry expanded 3.7 percent to 15.3 trillion won ($12.7 billion) in 2015 from the previous year, driven by a rise in revenue of internet streaming video services and terrestrial TV networks, a government data showed on Sunday.

According to data released by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning and the Korea Communications Commission, TV program providers (PP) including home-shopping channels raked in 6.2 trillion won in revenue, ranking first in revenue earned by broadcast operator business in 2015, followed by pay TV services with 4.7 trillion won and terrestrial TV networks with 4.1 trillion won.

PP’s overall revenue dropped 84.3 billion won from a year ago due to a reduced gain in the home-shopping channels while total revenue of television system operators (SO) including traditional cable and satellite pay TV providers shrank following a fall in license fee.

Propelled by a rise in subscription fees, internet-based TV service providers that allow customers to stream shows through an internet connection on a number of devices gained 421.6 billion won in 2015 to 1.9 trillion won previous year while terrestrial TV networks’ revenue rose 95.8 billion won on year, thanks to an increase in profits from advertisement, sponsorship, and TV license fees.

The number of subscribers to paid TV channels reached 28.27 million in 2015, up 800,000 subscribers from a year ago. The number of internet-TV channel subscribers added 1.69 million viewers over the same period whereas that of traditional cable and satellite pay TV services declined 880,000. As of the end of 2015, the number of web streaming paid TV subscribers stood at 11.36 million while 13.73 people were subscribed to cable and satellite pay TV channels.

By Lim Sung-hyun

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