IPTV Kids Samgukji... SKT and SKB Grow the 'Jam'

Intense Children's Content Market
Increasing Supply and Using Exclusive Contracts
Focusing on Securing Differentiated Competitiveness

SKT·SKB Strengthen 'Jam' Service
Providing Exclusive Tuntun English Content
KT and LGU+ Also in Close Competition

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] The three Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) providers are clashing in the kids' content market. Leading with English education, they are strengthening their kids' content by increasing supply or securing exclusive contracts to differentiate themselves. Amid the shrinking presence of IPTV due to online video services (OTT), family-centered kids' content is the "key" to developing IPTV's unique competitive edge.

Expanding IPTV Supply and Enhancing App Services Including Exclusive Provision of Tuntun English

SK Telecom and SK Broadband announced on the 9th that they will significantly enhance services and content related to the kids' brand ZEM in the IPTV and smartphone app sectors through a collaborative marketing campaign called 'I♥ZEM'. Photo by SK Broadband

SK Telecom and SK Broadband announced on the 9th that they will expand IPTV content supply related to the integrated wired and wireless kids brand 'ZEM' and strengthen smartphone application (app) services. ZEM is a product and service brand exclusively for children under 12, launched by SK Telecom in 2019.

SK Broadband plans to exclusively provide related content for the first time on IPTV starting from the 10th of this month through a new partnership with the infant and elementary English education brand 'Tuntun English.' They will also provide about 1,600 science and fairy tale contents. The elementary learning comic series 'Why?' will be exclusively offered on IPTV for the first time, along with 740 volumes of the Gyemongsa complete series such as 'Disney Picture Classic Fairy Tales.'

Additionally, 270 contents based on the best-selling Chinese character series 'Magic Hanja' will be sequentially provided by next year. The total number of kids' contents reaches about 80,000.

For the first time in domestic IPTV, the 'Today's Learning' service offers daily learning tailored to children's age and level, and the dedicated play pen 'ZEM Pen,' which allows children to learn by interacting with the TV, will also be enhanced. Utilizing the motion recognition function of the ZEM Pen, dance content 'ZEM Jam Dance' that supports children's physical activity and 'Living English' with voice recognition function are highly rated by customers for enabling children to interact with the TV.

SK Telecom is strengthening the ZEM products and services. Currently, it offers the child-customized ZEM app, ZEM phone, and ZEM rate plans, and operates ZEM Place, an offline space where native English free play is available. As part of a promotional campaign, SK Telecom and SK Broadband will release the 'Child♥ZEM' advertisement featuring the couple Lee Sun-kyun and Jeon Hye-jin as models.

KT and LG Uplus Also Strengthen Kids' Content

KT Kidsland ABCmouse

Kids' content is a common interest among the three IPTV providers. The most aggressive player is LG Uplus. After launching the dedicated media platform for infants 'U+ Idle Nara,' it reorganized the related organization from the IPTV business unit under the customer division to a CEO-directly controlled organization. It has secured 430 exclusive IPs out of about 1,500 contents from 34 publishing companies. Strategic investments have been ongoing since last year. Recently, it also set a record by surpassing 61 million cumulative users.

KT, which first entered the kids' content market in 2016, currently offers about 70,000 kids' educational contents, the largest number domestically. Among them, about 10,000 are free contents. Through the English content exclusive section 'English Playground,' it provides premium English educational contents such as Cocomelon and Scholastic exclusively for free.

The reason the three IPTV providers are fiercely competing is to secure kids customers. According to the Korea Creative Content Agency, the domestic kids industry market size was estimated at 40 trillion won in 2017. The scale grows even larger when looking globally. According to the global market research firm HolonIQ, the global edutech market size is expected to grow 1.8 times from about 250 trillion won in 2020 to about 450 trillion won in 2025. With increasing underlying demand, IPTV can also gain new subscribers and lock-in effects through the use of kids' content.