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 and Sangam-dong. 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 in Seoul with 186-192 MHz, 100-watt output, and 525 scanning lines.
Important genres of television shows include serial dramas, 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 foreign countries. Korean television dramas have been widely popular in other East Asian, South Asian and Southeast Asian countries, and became popularized internationally at a later stage, with whole sets of videotapes or DVDs of series available with completed subtitles in different languages, online subtitle websites are also created by numerous fan clubs to cater to a global audience. 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, CMB, and CJ HelloVision. There are approximately 14 million cable TV subscribers nationwide. The cable operator provides TPS to its subscribers.
History
Since the beginning of the 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. The first ever Korean television drama, 천국의 문 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 1 October 1961 the first full-scale television station, HLKA-TV, 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, and ran until merged in 1980. 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. Despite producing color televisions for export, color television was not officially introduced in the country until late 1980. Color broadcasting, however, occasioned a renewal of strong competition among the networks. However, Korean TV industry was also suffered huge blows in this decade. During Chun Doo-hwan's regime, 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. After the country's 1987 democratic reforms, several regulations were imposed to insulate broadcasters from political influence. For example, the National Assembly established the Foundation for Broadcast Culture to insulate MBC from political influence and KBS.
At the beginning of the 1990s, with the introduction of cable television, 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.
On July 22, 2009, after heated political debates, amendment of the Media law passed the South Korean national assembly to deregulate the media market of South Korea. On December 31, 2010, four general Cable Television networks were licensed.
National networks
In South Korea, there are four nationwide television networks, three general networks and one educational network as follows:| Name | Channels | Channels | Channels | Launch | Type & Owner |
| Educational Broadcasting System 한국교육방송공사 韓國敎育放送公社 |
|
|
| Public broadcasting Government of South Korea | |
| Korean Broadcasting System 한국방송공사 韓國放送公社 |
|
|
| | Public broadcastingGovernment of South Korea |
| Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation 문화방송주식회사 文化放送株式會社 |
|
|
| Commercial broadcasting The Foundation of Broadcast Culture The Jeongsu Scholarship Foundation | |
| Seoul Broadcasting System 에스비에스 / 서울방송그룹 에스비에스 / 서울放送그룹 |
|
|
| Commercial broadcasting SBS Media Holdings |
List of television channels
All of them are free-to-air channels. Furthermore, all of them are the official digital terrestrial television and ATSC providers of the nation.[Public broadcasting] channels
[Commercial broadcasting] channels
In South Korea, many commercial television networks have been created after the deregulation taken in 1961 till 1990.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 | Broadcasting hours | Slogan and Motto "Tagline" | Description |
| MBC TV | MBC | Nationwide | News and entertainment | 20 hours 35 minutes | The Power of Broadcasting Good Friends of MBC | The Channel's callsign is HLKV-TV | |
| SBS TV | SBS Media Holdings | Previously Seoul National Capital Area; now nationwide | News and entertainment | 24 hours | Humanism Through Digital See You Tomorrow | The Channel's callsign is HLSQ-TV | |
| KNN | Korea New Network Corporation | Busan and Gyeongnam | Local entertainment and news | ||||
| TBC | Daegu Broadcasting Corporation | Daegu and Gyeongbuk | Local entertainment and news | ||||
| KBC | Broadcasting Corporation | Gwangju and Jeonnam | Local entertainment and news | ||||
| TJB | Taejon Broadcasting Corporation | Daejeon, Sejong City and Chungnam | Local entertainment and news | ||||
| UBC | Ulsan Broadcasting Corporation | Ulsan, eastern part of Gyeongnam | Local entertainment and news | ||||
| JTV | Jeonju Television | Jeonbuk | Local entertainment and news | ||||
| CJB | Cheongju Broadcasting Corporation | Chungbuk | Local entertainment and news | ||||
| G1 | Gangwon No.1 Broadcasting Corporation | Gangwon | Local entertainment and news | ||||
| JIBS | Jeju Free International City Broadcasting System Corporation | Jeju | Local entertainment and news | ||||
| OBS | Yeong An Hat Company | Seoul National Capital Area | Metropolitan entertainment | Your Light of Hope and Share |