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June 12 2008
EDITION - Web Exclusive
Fox ventures into South Korea; Venture will likely be established by July
Han Sunhee
Daily Variety
© 2008, Variety, Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier, Inc
SEOUL -- Fox Intl. Channels will launch South Korean subsidiary Fox Ventures Korea this year.
FIC revealed the plan Wednesday at KCTA 2008, a digital cable TV showcase in Busan organized by the Korean Cable TV Assn. Ward Platt, prexy of FIC Asia, attended the show as a speaker.
A recent report by Hong Kong research outfit Media Partners Asia identified Korea as one of the most promising markets for pay TV expansion despite the emergence of regional giants India and China.
Korea is expected to see a boom in new TV services as regulatory change paves the way for cablers and IPTV service providers to battle it out for dominance of the living room (Variety, April 21).
Fox Ventures Korea will likely be established by July and rapidly expand into a range of new-media businesses in the country. It aims to provide digital video-on-demand service, launch an Internet advertising agency and offer new-media channels, digital games rentals, interactive service supply and theatrical movie distribution.
A company source said that preparations for the Fox Ventures Korea launch are largely complete but that it is awaiting financial details from the U.S.
Korea limits foreign ownership of TV channels, so local partners must be involved in the launch of more nets. No local partners were named in Busan.
FIC has four channels in Korea -- National Geographic Channel, Fox, femme-skewed Foxlife and male-skewed FX -- through a joint venture with CJ Media and Tbroad.
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