SO-PP Developing Countermeasures for the Unfair Trade
SO-PP Developing Countermeasures for the Unfair Trade
  • Lee Si-young
  • 승인 2009.12.19 16:27
  • 댓글 0
이 기사를 공유합니다

Korea Communications Commission

System Operators (SOs) prepared measures for organizing channels to evaluate Program Providers (PPs).

System Providers also decided to pay Program Providers program rental fees based on viewers’ channel preferences, and both SO and PP signed to conclude one-year-contract at the end of December.

However, it is still uncertain that the unfair trade will be vanished since there are no penalties or measures to prohibit unfair activities.

A New Guide Line

At the Standing Committee meeting on December 17, 2009, Korea Communications Commission (KCC) introduced ‘Guidelines for the PP evaluation and the distribution of the program rental fees for the organization of the Cable Television channels.

These new guidelines were arranged through the conference between SOs and PPs and the hands-on-conference between Korean Cable TV Association (ACTA) and Korea Communications Commissions (KCC).

According to this guideline, when SOs choose PPs for the channel organization, they match consumer demands by looking over the popularity rating evaluations, self-production fee for cultivating a content-industry, investment for the HD programs, and content diversity for the variety of the broadcasting.

Profit Distribution and Possible Conflict

SOs distributes program rental fees based on the amount of investments for the broadcasting programs, channel preferences, popularity ratings, and other evaluations.

To ensure the minimum compensation from the content supplies, they will distribute certain parts of entire program rental fees to PPs.

SOs and PPs assured to conclude the contract till the end of the December and promised to report 2010 contract and the user agreement at least until the first quarter of the year.

When the troubles from channel organizations and program rental fees occur, the contracting parties will first discuss and mediate according to the newly arranged guidelines, and they will resolve the problems through the official procedures such as grievance mediation of KCC if needed.

Until March 2010, KCC will inspect the payment status for the 25 percent of the broadcasting receiving fees which have been charged under the reauthorized conditions to 74 SOs, and KCC will order readjustment if performances are stagnant.

In addition, KCC will construct a database and regularly inspect to improve routines of accrued payments of the program rental fees.

Relationship between SOs and PPs

Unfair trades such as lopsided discontinuance of the transmissions and accrued rental fees have been continuously pointed out since SOs have positioned themselves superior to PPs.

A new guideline has a critical meaning since it has been established through autonomous discussions between SOs and PPs. However it is doubtful how much a new guideline will be effective.

Cho Young-hoon, a Manager of New Media of Korea Communication Commission, said new guidelines crafted for both SO and PP in common would be critical measures to find out which side is right in mediations between SOs and PPs.

Problems to be solved in the future

KCC Standing Committee pointed out that the amount of payment that SO pays for the program rental fees with 25% of the profit of the broadcasting receiving fees is too low.

 Lee Byung-gi a member of a standing committee, said “PPs have to be paid fairly. It is impossible to contribute to the improvement of PPs with this amount of money. It is even very hard to maintain their performances.”

He continued to say “I logically cannot understand that SOs take 75 percent of the profit of the Broadcasting receiving fees. Cable communication is already built and SOs only let contents out from already set-up equipments. The profit ratio has to be reconsidered.”

A director of a Broadcasting Policy of KCC, Kim Jun-sang, said “I am fully aware of the justification of 25 percent profit. Also, government’s excessive intervention is another concern. Therefore, we will constantly look for solutions.


댓글삭제
삭제한 댓글은 다시 복구할 수 없습니다.
그래도 삭제하시겠습니까?
댓글 0
댓글쓰기
계정을 선택하시면 로그인·계정인증을 통해
댓글을 남기실 수 있습니다.

  • ABOUT
  • CONTACT US
  • SIGN UP MEMBERSHIP
  • RSS
  • 2-D 678, National Assembly-daero, 36-gil, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, Korea (Postal code: 07257)
  • URL: www.koreaittimes.com | Editorial Div: 82-2-578- 0434 / 82-10-2442-9446 | North America Dept: 070-7008-0005 | Email: info@koreaittimes.com
  • Publisher and Editor in Chief: Monica Younsoo Chung | Chief Editorial Writer: Hyoung Joong Kim | Editor: Yeon Jin Jung
  • Juvenile Protection Manager: Choul Woong Yeon
  • Masthead: Korea IT Times. Copyright(C) Korea IT Times, All rights reserved.
ND소프트