South Korean operator SK Broadband has hit 5 million subscribers to its IPTV service dubbed ‘B TV’, The Korea Times reports. SK Broadband, a subsidiary of mobile operator SK Telecom, said the achievement came 13 years after it launched its IPTV service. SK Broadband ended 2018 with 4.73 million IPTV subscribers, which represented a growth of 10 percent year-on-year. Of the overall IPTV customer base, more than half used the premium UHD services, the operator said. SK Telecom’s online video service Oksusu reached 9.73 million subscribers at 31 December 2018.
SK Broadband recently unveiled plans to merge with domestic cable TV operator t-broad. Via its planned merge with t-broad, SK Broadband seeks to expand on the local media market. The deal is estimated to be worth KRW 4.7 trillion (approximately USD 4 billion). SK Broadband and t-broad will be merged at a ratio of 3 to 1. Following the completion of the merger, SK Telecom would hold a 74.4 percent stake in the merged entity, while t-broad would own the remaining 16.8 percent. The merged company would serve t-broad's cable TV subscribers and SK Broadband's IPTV users, to reach 8 million TV customers or 23.8 percent of the country's pay-TV market.
Source: https://www.telecompaper.com/news/sk-broadband-passes-5-million-iptv-subscribers-milestone--1303036