MBC, Google team up for content sharing

Sunday 23 Oct 2011
Korean broadcaster MBC has entered an agreement with Google to provide its TV drama and entertainment programmes through YouTube, the world’s largest online video sharing site operated by Google, The Korea Herald reports.

MBC president Kim Jae-chul and Google Korea CEO Yeom Dong-hoon, signed a content-sharing agreement in Seoul on Friday.

 Under the agreement, MBC will provide 10,000 hours of dramas and entertainment shows aired before 2005 for YouTube, which will be distributed around the world starting next year, the broadcaster said.

It is the first time a Korean broadcaster is providing such massive content on YouTube, MBC said.

 “We’ve been actively working with K-pop industry officials, entertainment agencies and album producers to help provide K-pop content on YouTube,” said Mr Yeom.

“We expect that this partnership can boost the Korean Wave one step further, through TV drama and entertainment content.”

To celebrate the partnership with Google, MBC will push for a K-pop concert at the head office of Google next year and broadcast it live on YouTube worldwide, Mr Kim said.

The first generation of YouTube was filled mainly with user-created content but the second generation will be those provided by professional content providers such as MBC, said Brian Suh, head of YouTube Partnership at Google.

“Rather than providing full content, we will break down the content of a programme into short clips and put advertisement between the clips,” Mr Suh said.