Choi Ju-hee CEO "Stable System Investment and Workforce Expansion"
Provides Various Features Including Time Machine and Digital Cheering
Allows Shorts Under 40 Seconds and Plans Special Content
Tving, which was embroiled in controversy over inadequate service following the KBO exhibition game broadcast last weekend, has quickly prepared improvement measures and promised to provide proper broadcasting services in time for the regular season opening.
On the 12th, at the CJENM Center in Mapo-gu, Seoul, Choi Ju-hee, CEO of TVING, is explaining the business strategy at the 'TVING K-Ball Service Briefing' / Photo by TVING
At the 'Tving K-Ball Service Briefing' held on the morning of the 12th at the CJ ENM Center in Mapo-gu, Seoul, Choi Ju-hee, CEO of Tving, said, "We have been monitoring numerous points raised after last weekend's exhibition games and are fully aware of the shortcomings in our service. We have already addressed issues that could be resolved immediately and are actively seeking improvement plans for the remaining issues."
Tving, which signed a contract with the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) for wireless and wired broadcasting rights of the KBO League, conducted its first exhibition game broadcast on the 9th. However, users gave negative feedback citing inadequate service such as errors in baseball terminology, player name misspellings, and inconvenience in using highlights. CEO Choi added, "We promise to come back with proper broadcasting services aligned with the regular season."
At the briefing, CEO Choi, Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) Lee Hyun-jin, and Chief Product Officer (CPO) Jeon Taek-su personally introduced the KBO League service strategy and held a Q&A session.
"We will reduce mistakes through content verification"... Tripling infrastructure for server stabilization
CEO Choi expressed regret over the subtitle errors and other service shortcomings, stating, "We sincerely apologize and are making thorough preparations before the regular season." She said, "In broadcasting, not only the platform but also coordination with partner companies is essential. We are reviewing numerous processes and working to streamline and strengthen them."
She also explained that investments are being made to provide stable service. Considering the large fan base of the KBO League, Tving has expanded server and infrastructure capacity by about three times. Former CPO Jeon said, "We are continuously conducting server performance tests to provide stable service. Additionally, to prepare for unexpected situations, we are conducting disaster recovery drills through network dualization and building monitoring systems."
Staff reinforcement is also underway. Tving has formed and is operating a task force (TF) team including about 60 developers for KBO broadcasting. CEO Choi said, "There are various areas within the platform that need improvement. While some are related to KBO, we are continuously strengthening personnel through hiring regardless." She added, "We are planning business strategies with considerable investments in server expansion, personnel, and content reproduction."
Although some have criticized that Tving paid too high a price for acquiring KBO broadcasting rights amid a deficit situation, CEO Choi responded confidently. She said, "Given the large investment, short-term profit recovery does not seem likely. However, if there is an increase in subscribers this year, we expect growth of 30-40%." She continued, "We are pursuing business diversification and have introduced an advertising subscription plan, so we see ourselves on a path toward monetization."
Viewing features utilizing OTT characteristics... 'My Team' subscription, simultaneous viewing, and digital cheering
Tving plans to provide unique broadcasting services to customers through services and new features leveraging the characteristics of online video streaming (OTT) providers. Tving users can enjoy KBO games on various devices such as mobile phones, tablets, PCs, and smart TVs. Tving operates a 'KBO Special Zone' that allows users to enter live broadcasts and highlights with a single click after opening the application.
Users can subscribe to their favorite team as 'My Team' and set app push notifications to be alerted about major games in advance. The 'My Team' feature also offers personalized curation and content recommendations such as team-specific replay (VOD) services. Various services including match schedules, team strength, and scoring are available. The Picture-in-Picture (PIP) function allows viewers to minimize the viewing screen into a popup form. The lowest-priced ad-supported standard plan at 5,500 KRW per month allows PIP functionality only for live channels.
Tving's 'Time Machine' feature, applied to sports and concert live broadcasts, actively reflects baseball fans' demands such as collecting scoring scenes. Former CPO Jeon said, "For KBO broadcasts, we plan to extend the existing 2-hour time-shift (time leap) to up to 5 hours." He added, "We also plan to provide spot markers highlighted in yellow for key moments during games starting from the opening game."
Considering diverse viewing habits, a multi-view mode allowing simultaneous viewing of four games per day will be provided in June. Tving is conducting experiments on latency and buffering that may occur during split playback and is developing user interface (UI) and user experience (UX). Starting from the 8th of next month, an audio mode allowing users to listen to only the broadcast sound will also be introduced.
The group chat feature 'Tving Talk,' designed to encourage digital cheering culture, will be enhanced into team-specific cheering rooms where up to 500,000 fans from the home team can connect. The service will also introduce Korea's first pitch batting average prediction service for fast and accurate text graphic broadcasting.
Copyright openness including allowance of shorts under 40 seconds... Special content planning
On the 12th, at the CJENM Center in Mapo-gu, Seoul, Jeon Taek-su, CPO, is answering reporters' questions at the 'TVING K-Ball Service Briefing' / Photo by TVING
As part of co-prosperity with the KBO League, Tving continuously considers a baseball culture-friendly copyright openness policy. It plans to allow the general public to upload videos or photos taken at stadiums to personal social networking service (SNS) accounts without copyright conflicts. It is also possible for the public to process and share shorts videos under 40 seconds on SNS.
With over 16,000 clip videos annually, Tving aims to attract new professional baseball fans' interest. On game days, daily uploads include interview clips, scoring scene compilations, and key moments of promising and foreign players. Newly planned clips will introduce baseball terminology and rules, showcase rare and notable stadium moments (mistakes and hot topics), and provide three-game series reviews.
Regarding VOD resale, Tving stated that it is a matter that can be sufficiently discussed after consultations with portals and other media. CSO Lee said, "Many discussions are expected regarding VOD resale, and negotiations with Naver are possible." However, he mentioned that live broadcast rights resale is not currently under consideration. CEO Choi said, "We do not consider revenue from live broadcast rights resale as an important business model."
Tving is also planning KBO special content utilizing the vast archive from 1982 to 2024 and recent footage, including 'Legendary Matches,' '100 KBO Representative Players Documentary,' 'KBO Ranking Show,' and 'Historic Moments by Team.'
In 'TVING SUPER MATCH,' which selects one game weekly for preview and behind-the-scenes review shows, tracking cams that follow the ball, in-game voice recording, and 360-degree rotating 4D cams will be provided. The first video will be released on the 23rd with the opening game between Hanwha Eagles and LG Twins. CSO Lee said, "It will be conducted through Tving's own broadcast, and we will cooperate with the KBO to avoid disturbing players before the match preparation."
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