Ruining a Good Thing -- Internet Edition

And in the latest from the Department of Just Not Getting The Point, the Korean Communications Commission plans to introduce a new, mandatory ID system for the Korean Internet. Brilliant. Because demanding national ID numbers to use just about every nook and cranny of the Internet in Korea has worked so well thus far, why not expand it?

Hrm... Article was dated April 1. Any chance it was a really bad April Fool's Joke?

We'll Be Right Back, After This Word — And Why That's a Good Thing

Some very happy news from the Korean courts Thursday -- Korea's Constitutional Court ruled that the state-run television ad agency KOBACO is unconstitutional.

Now, that might seem like an obscure thing to be happy about, but I assure you this is great news. You see, the Korea Broadcast Advertising Corporation currently is responsible for all aspects of TV advertising in Korea. It sets the rates and times for ads, collects the money and doles it out, all in one shop. And only KOBACO is allowed to do this. The result is the highly regulated, uncompetitive, and bizarre thing we call Korean television.

Of course, KOBACO justifies what it does in the name of "fairness" (as bureaucrats always do). But the result of KOBACO is anything but fair.

Advertisers get very little control over when their ads air.

TV stations do not get as much ad revenue as they could on the open market.

Neither advertiser nor broadcaster has much flexibility over the ad market.

Therefore TV stations have much less money to create programs, so their programs are that much cheaper and cheesier than they could be.

Also, there is little incentive to experiment with program styles, since the channels' revenues do not vary much, regardless of what they air.

Years ago, a former ad guy told me that KOBACO is a "zombie corporation" -- that is, it is already dead, but it keeps on moving. In fact, the government passed legislation what would have ended KOBACO's monopoly back in 2001, but that was not enough to kill it either.

Everybody knows that it is a relic from Korea's authoritarian past, but the government loved KOBACO, and was loath to give it up. It was set up under Chun Doo-hwan to keep control over Korea's television stations (way back before SBS began and long before anyone had even thought of cable TV).

The government tried to dress up KOBACO and make it pretty -- for example, it must use a certain percentage (around 6%) of revenues for public projects. The Press Center, the Korean Broadcasters Center, and the Seoul Arts Center were all built using KOBACO money (and the Arirang TV building).

With KOBACO's monopoly coming to an end in 2009, this could potentially really open up the Korean TV markets. Which should mean more money for the TV channels, more money for TV programs, and then hopefully better TV programs. And, if we are really lucky, we might get some more diversity, too.

Flock Out of Luck Ministries Shutting Down

As a reporter who does a lot of stuff in media issues, one of the major government ministries I need to deal with is the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC). I also write about Korean science, which has me dealing with the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST).

So what does President-elect Lee Myung-bak do? He axes both the MIC and MOST. Yikes. Should I take that personally?

I am cautiously optimistic about these changes. A professor of mine used to say, you can change the length of the alimentary canal all you want, the end product is still the same. But the truth is, organization does matter. It may not be as sexy or easy to understand as a great pop song or a cool movie, but boring stuff like infrastructure and organization is a vital part of any industry. Do not kid yourself, the "entertainment business" is as much business as it is entertainment.

What do these changes mean? First of all, getting the MIC out of the way potentially a huge boon for much of the Information Technology industry. IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) has been held up for years because of the MIC's squabbling with the Korean Broadcasting Commission. Also, how about Blackberries? Lots of cool toys like that have been kept out of Korea because of roadblocks put up by the MIC. There are plenty of tech issues keeping the iPhone out of Korea, but today we are one step closer to getting them.

We can only hope that the end of the MIC will also mean an end to (or at least a reduction in) Internet censorship. Way too much of the Internet in Korea gets shut off at the whim of random bureaucrats.

Despite the downsizing, Lee Myung-bak had a lot of science and IT stuff in his election platform. And he brought in people like Park Chan-mo (former head of POSTECH and all-round cool guy) to be one of his main advisors. Expect science and IT to remain central to Korean policymaking. After all, science, education and tech have been combined to create the Ministry of Knowledge-Based Economy (MOKBE?), which is quite a mouthful, but a clear sign of where Lee's priorities lie.

And who knows? What will happen once Lee Myung-bak comes up against the full force of bureaucratic intransigence? Once everything settles down, I imagine much less will change than people think right now.

But some deregulating in the media industry could be a great shot in the arm, helping Korea's media companies get a little more profitable, which in turn gives us consumers a better chance at getting better movies, TV, music and whatnot ("content" in boring industry-speak).

And at least Lee kept the Ministry of Culture. It is not like the accountant barbarians are taking over everything.

(Note: I might update this post over the weekend as additional stuff occurs to me).