Korea’s SK Telecom forms JV with US broadcaster Sinclair

Korea’s largest telecom operator SK Telecom (SKM) announced on Tuesday that it signed a joint venture agreement with Sinclair Broadcast Group (SBGI), one among the largest TV broadcasting companies in the US. According to the official company statement read by AlphaStreet, “the two companies will jointly fund and manage a joint venture company within the first quarter of this year.”

Both companies plan to develop broadcasting solutions based on ATSC 3.0 in the US market and globally. The JV also aims to create new services including personalized advertisements and in-vehicle terrestrial TV broadcasting.

The JV looks to commercialize the solutions under ATSC 3.0 standards for the first time in the US market in 2019.

ATSC 3.0 is the latest version of the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) standard. It supports several advancements including mobile viewing, 3D television, 4K Ultra High Definition (UHD), high dynamic range (HDR), high frame rate (HFR), and wide color gamut (WCG) picture quality, as well as immersive audio.

This commercialization would give rise to new services such as personalized advertisements and in-vehicle terrestrial TV broadcasting and map updates. It will also support two-way communication between broadcasting companies and user’s device or vehicle by recognizing the user’s IP address.

SK Telecom and Sinclair expect all television broadcasting stations throughout the US to adopt ATSC 3.0 broadcasting solutions within the next decade. Through the JV, both companies plan to provide ATSC 3.0 standards-based solutions to all US broadcasting companies, while seeking other opportunities globally.

“SK Telecom will work closely with Sinclair Broadcast Group to gain leadership in the next-generation broadcasting solutions market in the U.S.,” said SK Telecom CEO Park Jung-ho.

“Sinclair is excited to partner with SK Telecom, a wireless technology leader, to explore and commercialize solutions that optimize the economic value of our spectrum, our broadcast infrastructure, our programming ventures and our emerging OTT platforms. Bringing these assets together in a converged broadcast/broadband platform environment will be a significant value multiplier,” commented Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley.

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