World News – US – NEW Partners with LG to Expand Availability of K-pop to Smart TVs

Korean electronics giant LG has teamed up with NEW ID, part of Next Entertainment World group, to expand Korean entertainment content available to users of its smart TVs Among the news deals is YG TV, a channel launched with talent agency YG Entertainment that is responsible for K-pop acts including Blackpink, G-Dragon, Taeyang and Winner

This move represents an extension of LG’s role as a provider of Ad-Funded Free Streaming TV (FAST) It sounds like a return to linear TV, but it’s actually a commercial sector rapidly growing populated by brands such as Tubi TV, Pluto TV, IMDB TV and The Roku Channel

LG is the world’s second-largest TV maker It reports that the number of viewers and their time spent consuming content on LG channels has quadrupled since last year

From next week the extended Korean content service will be available on LG 2019 TVs with webOS 45 in select European markets Customers with LG smart TVs running an older version of the webOS versions will see the service before the end of the year Those with the latest versions and owners in other countries will benefit from the service from 2021

« LG Channels offers premium digital content and multi-broadcast channels as well as a wide range of quality content choices available for free on LG Smart TVs in the US, Canada, Europe and Europe. Latin America, « said Lee Sang-woo, senior vice president of content services at LG Electronics Home Entertainment Company

Other Korean entertainment on offer includes muKbang TV, Mubeat (music videos and karaoke) and Billiards TV NEW ID is one of the platform owners, whereas before LG Channels platform was powered only by Xumo

« With this launch, you could say that NEW ID is becoming both aggregator / distributor / technology integrator, » a NEW ID spokesperson told Variety

« We plan to continually expand our inventory by adding European and Asian channels. Other major channels are intended to expand beyond our parent company’s scripted TV features and content and include performance related to the K-Pop or reality TV shows « 

« Following the success of ‘Parasite’, Korean films seem to have overtaken the image of the underdog in the industry, but channels are still needed that can actively expose global audiences to various Korean films We hope that our channel can meet such a need ”, said the spokesperson.

« For a similar reason, there must be channels capable of presenting Korean drama, variety shows and K-pop artists in the North American and European markets. We believe the FAST platforms that are emerging with OTT market could potentially decide the next evolution of the Korean content distribution model »

Smart TV, TV, South Korea, LG Electronics, Content