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South Korea: Regulator approves plan to establish “Netflix of Asia”

By  |  August 20, 2019

Korea’s antitrust watchdog on Tuesday, August 20, approved the integration of two popular video streaming businesses, giving the nod to the local companies’ ambition to establish a massive home-grown streaming platform to compete with Netflix.

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    The Korean Fair Trade Commission announced it greenlighted the merger of SK Telecom and territorial broadcasters’ over-the-top video services. Combining SK Telecom’s Pooq and the broadcasters’ Oksusu, new OTT service Wavve will be launched next month.

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    While the approval came with several conditions designed to ensure fair competition in the country’s growing online content market, the companies expressed the hope that the merger would improve the homegrown service’s capabilities.

    “By offering unique and innovative content, Wavve will assume a crucial role in leading the country’s media industry,” said an SK Telecom official. “We will do our utmost to protect Korea’s content business.”

    Full Content: Korea Herald

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