hanarotelecom has made inroads into the telecommunication-broadcasting convergence market, rolling out a commercial Triple Play Service (TPS), the first of its kind offered by a domestic fixed-line carrier.

In the press conference held at Westin Chosun Hotel in Seoul in the morning on the 24th, hanarotelecom (Representative Director: Byung-Moo Park) announced the launch of "hanaTV", a commercial VOD-based TV-Portal service, which provides various contents including movies, dramas, and educational programs on TV through broadband Internet network and IP Set-Top Box.

The company explained that it had become the first domestic fixed-line carrier to offer the TPS bundling broadband Internet, telephony, and TV-Portal with the launch of the "hanaTV" service, laying the foundation to transform itself into an integrated multi-media company to offer a new type of telecommunication-broadcasting convergence service.

The "hanaTV" service presents various differentiated features in that;

• Subscribers can watch a program of their choice at any time unlike the current TV broadcasting whose schedule is pre-set by broadcasters,
• It provides various high-definition quality contents including movies, dramas, educational programs, and sports programs,
• It presents a high-definition quality digital screen with the full sound of 5.1 channel, and
• Subscribers can watch a movie of their choice whenever they want at a price for one movie ticket.

Subscribers can enjoy the "hanaTV" service at a bandwidth of 2Mbps through H.264 CODEC and Download & Play, the most advanced service technologies, and don't have to change their Set-Top Box for the real-time & multi-channel IPTV service to come in the future.

hanarotelecom has signed a deal with Sony Pictures Television International (SPTI), which distributes Sony Pictures Entertainment's (SPE) feature films and television programming around the world, for major films and television titles including the feature films Spider-Man 2, Fun With Dick And Jane, and Kung Fu Hustle.

Also, the company explained that it had secured more than 22,000 contents (16,000 hours), the largest number for a domestic company, signing agreements with more than 50 domestic/foreign content providers including the Walt Disney Television, CJ Entertainment, SBS, BBC Worldwide, YTN, EBS, Daum, and National Geographic. The company added that it was trying to sign an agreement with MBC and more major movie producers in Hollywood like 20th Century Fox TV, Warner Bros Entertainment Inc. to provide differentiated premium contents services to its customers. And talks are in process with KBS.

Service application can be registered through hanarotelecom's customer centers or designated distribution channels, or at 1600-8000 or www.hanatv.co.kr. Subscribers using the both of hanarotelecom's broadband Internet service and telephony service will be charged 7,000 KRW without STB rental fees if they sign the 4-year contract

hanarotelecom is planning to charge usage-based fees ranging from 500 KRW to 2,500 KRW per content in addition to basic fees for some premium contents and VAS.

hanarotelecom expects the "hanaTV" service to attract 250,000 subscribers with revenues of approx. 5 Billion KRW by the end of 2006, 1 Million subscribers with revenues of 70~80 Billion KRW by 2007, and 1.5 Miliion subscribers with revenues of 200 Biliion KRW by 2008, when full-fledged IPTV services are expected to be provided.

hanarotelecom expects that the "hanaTV" business will reach its BEP next year and it will create synergy with the existing business such as expansion and retention of subscriber base through TPS.

President & CEO of hanarotelecom Byung-Moo Park remarked that hanarotelecom would be able to expand its business scope by launching commercial "hanaTV" services and take the lead in the TPS market based on its full-fledged bundling service combining broadband Internet, telephony, and TV-Portal.

He also stated that the "hanaTV" service was expected to serve as a new growth engine of the company as the launch of the new service would contribute to expanding the subscriber base and creating additional profits by improving the satisfaction level of existing subscribers.

hanarotelecom has applied for patents for 5 technologies related to the "hanaTV" service(Advertising Scheduling, VOD Contents Channel-Up-and-Down, Contents Download & Play, VOD Contents Link, P2P-based Contents Sharing) via hanaromedia (formerly CelrunTV), one of its subsidiaries.