Television in South Korea

In South Korea, there are a number of national television networks, the three largest of which are KBS, MBC, and SBS. Most of the major television studios are located on Yeouido. South Korea became the third adopter in Asia when television broadcasting began on 12 May 1956 with the opening of HLKZ-TV, a commercially operated television station. HLKZ-TV was established by the RCA Distribution Company (KORCAD) in Seoul with 186-192 MHz, 100-watt output, and 525 scanning lines.

Important genres of television shows include serial dramas (soap operas), historical dramas, variety shows, game shows, news programs, and documentaries. All three networks have produced increasingly lavish historical dramas in recent years. Some South Korean television programs are available on satellite and multicultural channels in North America. Korean television dramas have become widely popular in other East Asian and Southeast Asian countries, with whole sets of videotapes or DVDs of series available, complete with different language subtitles. Shopping channels have become quite popular in recent years as well, and the models sometimes put on entertaining acts during product pitches.

There are many cable operators in South Korea, such as Tbroad, C&M, and CJ. The cable TV subscriber is approximately 14 million. The cable operator provides TPS to its subscribers.

History

Since the beginning of 1950s, television was introduced to Korea by RCA to sell second-hand black & white TV sets as a marketing scheme. Some TV sets were strategically set up at Pagoda Park, others at the Seoul Station and Gwanghwamun during this time. However it was not until 1956 when South Korea began its own television broadcasting station, the HLKZ-TV, part of the KORCAD (RCA Distribution Company). The first ever Korean television drama, 천국의 문 (The Gates of Heaven) in 1956, planning director Choi Chang-Bong spent two and a half months continuously fixing the script, preparing sets and even the first instance of special effects, all for a drama that lasted no longer than fifteen minutes.

The early 1960s saw a phenomenal growth in television broadcasting. On 31 December 1961 the first full-scale television station, HLKA-TV (Now known as KBS 1TV), was established and began operation under the Ministry of Culture and Public Information.

Following KBS was Tongyang Broadcasting Corporation's TBC-TV which was launched in 1964. It was the first private television network in South Korea.

The second commercial television system, MBC-TV, made its debut in 1969. The advent of MBC-TV brought significant development to the television industry in Korea and after 1969 the television industry was characterized by furious competition among the three networks.

The 1970s were highlighted by government intervention into the media system in Korea. In 1972, President Park Chung Hee government imposed censorship upon media through the Martial Law Decree. The government revised the Broadcasting Law under the pretext of improving the quality of television programming. After the revision of the law, the government expanded its control of media content by requiring all television and radio stations to review programming before and after transmission. Although the government argued that its action was taken as a result of growing public criticism of broadcasting media practices, many accused the government of wanting to establish a monopoly over television broadcasting.

The 1980s were the golden years for Korea's television industry. Growth was phenomenal in every dimension: the number of programming hours per week rose from 56 in 1979 to nearly 88.5 in 1989; the number of television stations increased from 12 in 1979 to 78 by 1989; and the number of television sets grew from 4 million in 1979 to nearly 6 million in the same period. 1981 also saw another technological breakthrough, the introduction of color television. Color broadcasting, however, occasioned a renewal of strong competition among the networks. Korean TV industry suffered huge blows in this decade. During Chun Doo-Hwan's term, several newspapers, broadcasters and publications were forcibly closed, or were merged into a single organization. One of which is TBC-TV which was awarded to KBS. TBC-TV was then replaced by KBS 2TV.

At the beginning of the 1990s with the introduction of cable television. In 1990, the government initiated an experimental multi-channel and multi-purpose cable television service. In addition, Korea launched its first broadcasting/communication satellite, Mugungwha, to 36,000 km above the equator in 1995. The development of an integrated broadband network is expected to take the form of B-ISDN immediately after the turn of the century. This decade is a period of great technological change in the Korean broadcasting industry, which will make broadcasting media even more important than in the past. In this decade the Korean broadcasting industry will maximize the service with new technological developments such as DBS, satellites, and interactive cable systems, all of which will allow Korea to participate fully in the information society.

National networks

In South Korea, there are four nationwide television networks, three general networks and one educational network as follows:

Name	Channels (Sudogwon region)	Channels (Busan region)	Launch	Type & Owner
Educational Broadcasting System (EBS) 한국교육방송공사 韓國敎育放送公社	EBS TV HLQL-DTV (Ch. 10-1)	EBS TV (Ch. 10-1)	27 December 1990	Public broadcasting Government of South Korea
Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) 한국방송공사 韓國放送公社	KBS 1TV HLKA-DTV (Ch. 9-1) KBS 2TV HLSA-DTV (Ch. 7-1)	KBS Busan 1TV (Ch. 9-1) KBS Busan 2TV (Ch. 7-1)	31 December 1961 (KBS1) 01 December 1980 (KBS2)	Public broadcasting Government of South Korea
Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) 문화방송주식회사 文化放送株式會社	MBC TV HLKV-DTV (Ch. 11-1)	Busan MBC TV HLKU-DTV (Ch. 11-1)	8 August 1969	Commercial network The Foundation of Broadcast Culture, The Jeongsu Scholarship Foundation
Seoul Broadcasting System (SBS) 에스비에스 / 서울방송그룹 에스비에스 / 서울放送그룹	SBS TV HLSQ-DTV (Ch. 6-1)	KNN TV HLDG-DTV (Ch. 6-1)	20 March 1991	Commercial network SBS Media Holdings, Inc.

List of television channels

All of them are free-to-air channels. Furthermore, all of them are the official digital television and DMB providers of the nation (since 2005, approved by the Korean Government).

Government owned channels

Name	Owner	Launch	Genre	Slogan	Description
KBS 1TV	KBS	December.31, 1961	General entertainment featuring news and sport, etc.	Korean's Manifested Channel	The Channel's callsign is HLKA-TV.
KBS 2TV	KBS	December.01,1980	General entertainment featuring variety shows and sport, etc.	Youth Channel	The Channel's callsign is HLSA-TV.
MBC TV	MBC	August 8, 1969	General entertainment featuring news and variety shows, etc.	The Power of Broadcasting (2001-2011) Good Friends, MBC (2011-present)	Its name is literally "Culture Broadcasting Corporation".
EBS TV	EBS	December 27, 1990	General Infotainment featuring documentaries, 2nd language education programmes, etc.	A truly good channel	Formerly KBS 3TV, independent in 1990.

Corporate channels

In South Korea, lots of corporate television networks have been created after the deregulation taken in 1961 till 1990. Apart from OBS Kyeongin TV, all of them are affiliated with SBS .

SBS is responsible in distributing its programming content nationally, but is not responsible for producing local content aired by their affiliates.

Name	Owner	Launch	Covers	Genre	Slogan	Description
SBS TV	SBS Media Holdings, Inc.	March 20, 1991	Seoul and its suburbs	General entertainment featuring variety shows and drama, etc.	Humanism Through Digital (2000–2010) See you Tomorrow (2010–present)
OBS	Yeong-an Hat Co.	December 28, 2007	Seoul and its suburbs	General entertainment with local contents, independent of SBS	Your light of Hope and Share
KNN	KNN Corp.(The Nexen Tire-led Consortium)	May 14, 1995	Busan and Gyeongnam	General entertainment with some local contents
TBC	TBC Corp.(The Nano Chem.-led Consortium)	May 14, 1995	Daegu and Gyeongbuk	General entertainment with some local contents
KBC	KBC Corp.	May 14, 1995	Gwangju and Jeonnam	General entertainment with some local contents
TJB	TJB Corp.(The Woosung Feed Co.-led Consortium)	May 14, 1995	Daejeon and Chungnam	General entertainment with some local contents
ubc	UBC Corp.(The KOFCO-led Consortium)	September 1, 1997	Ulsan, eastern part of Gyeongnam	General entertainment with some local contents
JTV	JTV Corp. (The Iljin holdings. -led Consortium)	September 17, 1997	Jeonbuk	General entertainment with some local contents
CJB	CJB Corp. (The Doujin Construction -led Consortium)	October 18, 1997	Chungbuk	General entertainment with some local contents
GTB	GTB Corp.	December 15, 2001	Gangwon	General entertainment with some local contents
JIBS	JIBS Corp.(The Hanju Holdings. -led Consortium)	May 31, 2002	Jeju	General entertainment with some local contents

See also

• List of Korea-related topics
• List of Korean television series