Parents in South Korea have embraced IPTV as an educational tool for their children, letting their little ones watch cartoons in English and Chinese to promote fluency in those languages. KT's "Mega TV" IPTV service allows users to download and watch programs at any time, allowing students with tight schedules to watch an episode of the popular "Magic Hanja" comic book series; the heroes use 20 Chinese characters to create magic spells to defeat villains and monsters.
IPTV video-on-demand services are available from KT, Hanarotelecom and LG Dacom. Hanarotelecom started their IPTV service in 2006 and leads the market with 900,000 subscribers. KT, the largest Internet and wireline phone company in the country, is already at 580,000 subscribers and reports signing up 200,000 over the past two months.
KT sees big potential in educational TV in the market, with 20 percent of South Korean household income being spent on private education. IPTV is expected to be an affordable alternative to private classes for mid and low-income households. The company signed a contract in December to use Disney children's programming in three versions--dubbed in Korean, and originals in English with and without English subtitles.
For more:
- Read the Korea Times article here
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