Satellite mobile TV begins, with a few quirks

Satellite digital multimedia broadcasting, or DMB, began commercial services yesterday, opening up a new era of wireless TV in Korea. As of yesterday, 730 people were willing to pay a 20,000-won ($20) subscription fee, plus $13,000 won a month, for the chance to watch TV while on the move. Most users’ responses were positive. The first person to sign up for the service, Shin Mi-ra, a 25-year-old living in Daegu, said it was better than expected. “The image quality was good and the contents are diverse,” he said. He became a subscriber because he’s a big sports fan. “I spend a lot of time outside, but I didn’t want to miss pro baseball games. Before, I recorded the games at home on my VCR, but now I don’t have to,” he said. He said he’ll be using the audio service as well. “I can listen to music on my DMB phone now when I travel to and from work, instead of carrying around an MP3 player,” he said. Not everyone was happy though. Some people living in rural areas complained of poor reception. A user in Jinju, South Gyeongsang province, complained that the picture became fuzzier when he left Busan. “When I was in downtown Busan, the DMB service for the device in my car was perfect, but when I drove out to Jinju, the transmission rate fell by about 30 percent and sometimes the images would flicker,” he said. TU Media, the sole service provider for satellite DMB, also received complaints from people in their 50s or older. “The screen is too small, so after a while, my eyes started to hurt. This service seems only appropriate for young people,” said a self-employed man in his mid-50s who wanted to be identified only as Mr. Choi. “There are still a lot of obstacles to overcome, especially regarding the programming and lack of content, but we’re going to work on it,” a TU Media official said. by Lee Hee-sung, Wohn Dong-hee