The government reported at the weekly economic coordination meeting on April 6 that it plans to invest 54.3 billion won ($49.8 million dollars US) this year to help local companies maintain their lead in the global smart TV market. The Ministry of Knowledge Economy, the Korea Communications Commission and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and tourism will work together to build smart TV-related contents to attract customers and to establish a successful internet infrastructure.
The government will focus on developing new smart TV platforms and network technologies such as user interfaces. Also, it will focus on developing a "giga-level" Internet foundation for providing smart TV services such as video-on-demand, online games, and other applications.
In addition, the government realized the lack of content for smart TVs posed a major barrier to further growth. To solve this problem, the government and smaller enterprises in Korea will join hands and develop contents such as digital books and games. They will also cooperate to create educational content.
"Korea has very powerful technology for smart TV but lacks in the content area, where people can enjoy themselves, and we need to focus on developing various programs and applications for smart TV users," said a staff member from the Ministry of Knowledge Economy. Samsung and LG have been working to strengthen their own smart TV technologies to broaden the global smart TV market.
LG has focused on developing interesting and enjoyable contents for smart TV users, including an innovative motion-sensing remote. The Magic Motion remote is easy to use, with an intuitive point-and-click control and just five buttons. Also, LG has developed a customizable dashboard where users can put all their LG Smart TV entertainment, from apps to streaming video to live TV in one place. LG opened a website (www.lgappstv.com) in March for smart TV users in other regions across the world to download applications. The website will be expanded to offer content 60 countries later this year.
Samsung realized that the there are many users who want a full range of applications and options from their TVs, not just programming. People also want to share what they've watched with friends via social networking services. Samsung smart TVs have been configured to allow people to easily search for movies and TV shows, browse the web, explore Samsung apps, chat with friends and find many other types of new interactive TV content, and the company is working on ways to make these easier to share.
Last year, Samsung opened a smart TV application website (http://tv.samsungapps.com) where people can select applications and digital content from sources including Netflix, Blockbuster, Hulu Plus, YouTube, ESPN and Pandora, and social updates from Facebook and Twitter.
