Provided by KBS

Before long, it is expected to become a reality that viewers in the United States can select the ‘K-Channel 82’ channel on their TVs at home and watch popular KBS dramas and music programs for free.

On the 16th, KBS signed a Strategic Collaboration Agreement (SCA) with the major U.S. over-the-air broadcaster ‘Sinclair Broadcast Group’ and its subsidiary ‘CAST.ERA Networks’.

The Strategic Collaboration Agreement (SCA) represents a stage more advanced than the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) the two sides signed in the United States in January, and is meaningful in that, after confirming their intent to cooperate, they have moved into discussions on concrete business execution in just over two months.

At the core of this agreement are the launch of the U.S. over-the-air channel ‘K-Channel 82’ and the opening of a free K-content viewing era. The ‘K-Channel 82’ channel will be added sequentially across the 185 U.S. broadcast stations owned by Sinclair. Once this process is complete, a free, over-the-air distribution network for KBS content will reach 30 million U.S. households.

Until now, most viewers in the United States had to rely on paid online video services (OTT) to watch K-content, but going forward they will be able to watch for free through a large over-the-air network. The name ‘K-Channel 82’ combines ‘K’ for K-content with South Korea’s international dialing code, 82.

It is also significant for entering the U.S. over-the-air advertising market and building an ‘app-based’ e-commerce revenue model. Through this collaboration, KBS has opened a path to directly enter the U.S. over-the-air ad market, overcoming the limits of its existing advertising market. By agreeing to a ‘revenue share’ model that divides advertising revenue associated with KBS content with Sinclair, the parties expect to build a new, sustainable revenue structure.

KBS and Sinclair will go beyond launching a U.S. over-the-air channel and have also begun jointly developing a mobile-only ‘K-Channel 82’ application. The goal is to enable watching Korean broadcasts on the mobile app and to create a revenue model that links to e-commerce.

For example, if viewers are drawn to the ‘ramen (K-food)’ an idol eats or the ‘cosmetics (K-beauty)’ they use on a KBS music show and click the screen, the process would, in one step, present product information and connect to a site for immediate purchase.

The transfer of KBS’s unique ‘centimeter (cm)-level’ disaster-broadcasting technology is also one of the key items of this agreement. KBS plans to transfer to the Sinclair group its world-class ‘disaster-broadcasting technology’ that it owns and has even filed patents for. This technology combines GPS information with the over-the-air broadcast network to enable precise location identification down to the centimeter (cm). In extreme disaster situations where communications networks are cut off, the over-the-air network, which reaches everywhere without interruption, can deliver information such as the locations of shelters in the area and real-time safety guidelines, thereby helping save lives.

With the signing of this Strategic Collaboration Agreement (SCA), KBS and Sinclair agreed to cooperate in jointly developing and providing a U.S. version of KBS’s ‘disaster data transmission service’. They expect this to be an opportunity to prove the stature of Korea’s public broadcaster and its superior technology in the global market.

Representatives from Sinclair who attended the signing ceremony also showed great interest in KBS’s production technologies, including the AI-based camera production system ‘VVERTIGO’. ‘VVERTIGO’ is a system in which AI tracks an artist’s movements and automatically generates video content such as ‘shorts’ optimized for YouTube and various social media platforms.

KBS President Park Jang-beom said, “An attempt to overcome the limits of the contracted domestic TV advertising market and, by partnering with U.S. over-the-air broadcasters, directly pioneer a new revenue model,” adding, “While monetizing KBS’s technological and content competitiveness in the global market, this will also be an important turning point that elevates the global standing of public broadcasting through the transfer of disaster-broadcasting technology.”