MUMBAI: This is one market that  is bucking the OTT trend and pay TV is actually looking strong here. South Korea has seen a growth in its pay TV subscriber base to 33 million in the first six months of the year, up 540,000 or 1.67 per cent over the second half of last year. The numbers include subscribers to system operators, satellite services and IPTV services. The most buoyant of these three has been IPTV services.

Amongst the leaders figure fixed-line and telco services provider KT with a market share of over 21.4 percent or just under 7.1 million subscribers, followed by SK Broadband with 14.7 percent and LG Uplus with 12.4 percent. These three offer IPTV services to their subscribers and have been showing healthy growth.

At the No 4 and No 5 spots are CJ Hello and KT Skylife with market shares of 12.3 percent and 9.9 percent, respectively.

The division between IPTV, system operators, and satellite TV is 47.6 percent, or 16 million people; 41.5 percent and 9.9 per cent respectively.