Internet Protocol Television (IPTV), which has experienced growth stagnation due to being overshadowed by online video services (OTT) such as Netflix, is seeking a rebound by leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) new technologies. Mobile carriers have particularly entered into an ecosystem competition of increasing AI cooperation in IPTV business, actively collaborating with Microsoft (MS) and promising startups.

According to the telecommunications industry on Nov. 18, KT Corp. applied the large language model (LLM) "SOTA K," co-developed with MS, to its IPTV service Genie TV earlier this month. SOTA K is a model that specialized Korean language learning on OpenAI’s GPT4o model targeting the domestic market as part of the 2.4 trillion won partnership that KT is pursuing with MS. KT explains that since the understanding of Korean culture, history, and geography is higher than competing models, the performance of the Genie TV AI Agent (assistant) can also be significantly enhanced.

KT unveiled the upgraded Genie TV AI Agent based on its own LLM in July this year. It is a conversational service that answers current affairs-related questions by voice during news viewing like ChatGPT and finds and recommends content just by listening to simple descriptions. KT’s plan is to add high-performance models like SOTA K following its own LLM to improve the accuracy of the agent’s responses. Multimodal (multi-model) that has learned images and videos will also be added as early as within this year.

LG Uplus co-developed an IPTV-dedicated on-device AI model with AI optimization solution startup ENERZAi this month and installed it in new set-top boxes. On-device AI is a technology that can enhance security by performing calculations inside the device without connecting to data centers, although it is smaller in scale than LLM. LG Uplus explains that on-device AI is essential for IPTV particularly since it handles personal information such as viewing records, eliminating concerns about external leakage. For this purpose, ENERZAi possesses optimization technology that can reduce computational load while maintaining AI performance.

LG Uplus launched the hyper-personalization function in July last year, installing its own model "iXigen" as an on-device model in set-top boxes to provide personalized content recommendations based on viewing records like YouTube. Subsequently, it expanded on-device AI functions to include voice control through collaboration with ENERZAi. This is the Voice Settings function that allows users to adjust playback time, speed, subtitles, and other settings with voice alone while watching content.

SK Broadband is also collaborating with Conan Technology to apply technology that automatically generates highlight videos by extracting only key scenes from entire videos using AI to IPTV "Btv." The company continues to advance AI functions, including introducing technology "AQUA" last month that analyzes 2.2 billion data points daily from set-top boxes to monitor Btv quality abnormalities in real time.

The three companies plan to counter poor performance through AI service advancement. In the third quarter of this year, the combined IPTV business revenue of the three companies was 1.3466 trillion won, and the number of subscribers was 21.968 million, representing only 0% growth compared to the same period last year.