The Korean telecommunications firm SK Broadband’ chief executive said Tuesday it is gearing up for the global launch of its mobile media platform Oksusu.

Oksusu, launched in January of last year, is a mobile media service the currently offers a total of 170,000 movies, TV dramas and videos-on-demand created by 115 channels. It is the largest over-the-top platform in Korea with 10 million subscribers, followed by Pooq -- jointly set up by KBS, SBS and MBC -- with 1.3 million subscribers and CJ E&M Tving with 600,000 users. Over-the-top refers to delivery of film and TV content via the internet, without requiring users to subscribe to traditional cable services. 


SK Broadband chief Lee Hyung-hee said at the press conference, “We are planning the global launch of Oksusu and we are now in talks with one or two partners.”

Lee did not elaborate any details, saying nothing has been confirmed now.

His remarks are in line with an earlier comment by SK Telecom CEO Park Jung-ho that he is considering allowing Oksusu to jump into the Asian market at a press briefing during the Mobile World Congress recently held in Spain. SK Broadband is a wholly owned subsidiary of SK Telecom.

The telecommunications firm chief also said the company plans to make an investment of 5 trillion won ($4.3 billion) over the next five years to advance technology-based infrastructure and make unique contents.

“Through the investment, we aim to have 27 million subscribers from both Oksusu (20.5 million) and ITPV Btv (6.5 million) by 2021. We also aim to reach 4.5 trillion won in sales,” Lee said.

The company plans to make Oksusu a smart platform through big data and artificial intelligence technology to provide customized services. It also plans to upgrade the optical capacity of Oksusu from its current 40 gigabytes to 100 gigabytes by 2020 to accommodate the massive media traffic and provide high-definition media content.

By Shin Ji-hye (shinjh@heraldcorp.com)